Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 November 1942 — Page 9

Hoosier Vagabond

IN ENGLAND, Nov. 17.—Maj. Gen. Ira Eaker,

chief ‘of our \bomber command over here, has Bays

been a great huntsman. This summer he went on an afternoon's shootAng here in England. By accident he stepped

into a hornet’s nest, and before

he could get away was stung 50°

times. Now, 50 hornet stings are enough” to put anybody in the hospital. And Gen. Eaker went to the hospital, too. Ordinarily he would have been there a. long time, a very sick man. But he had a date the next day. A date he just had to keep. So he got up next morning, swollen and sick, and led America’s Flying Fortresses on their first big Getmin raid. That was Aug. 18, 1942. ” = = IN THE OFFICERS’ CLUB at one bomber station there is a printed notice about breaking glasses. Glassware is scarce over here, you know, because glass factories are busy making stuff for the war. It seems

the pilots and bombardiers are great glass-breakers.

So this sign gives notice that anybody who breaks - & glass must pay 50 cents. The steward (an enlisted man) must collect on the spot. If the officer argues about it—no excuses are allowed—he is fined one pound ($4). As a result, gaiety in the officers’ club is now unaccompanied by the merry tinkle of shatterAng glasses.

A Champion One-Minute Biographer

AT ANOTHER STATION I was sitting one day waiting for lunch when a short, chubby captain came up: He kept both hands in the slant pockets of his field jacket as though he were cold, which he probably was, He asked if I were a newspaperman, When I said yes he said: “My name is Harry M. Cohn, captain, from Cin-

cinnati. I'm an attorney-at-law. the world war, was gassed and wounded on Armistice day, I'm a veteran of this war, and I'm not 40 yet. I have offices in the First National Bank building, Cincinnati. I was on the way to England within 10 days after getting in the army. I'm engaged to be married next spring, although that may be a little delayed. I'm the busiest man in England. On this station I'm postmaster, chief censor, judge advocate and war bond salesman.” 8 2 2 , AT STILL ANOTHER bomber station a young lieutenant came up and said, “Do you remember me? We came over on the same plane together.” I did remember him—Lieut. Allison Derby, from Alabama, an intelligence officer with the air forces. He goes by “Al,” which is short either for Allison or for Alabama, which he’s sometimes called. He talks with a good thick Southern accent, and it fascinates the British. One night Lieut. Derby, dropped into a brasserie where some other. air force officers and their English girls were sitting, and talked a while. After he left, one of the girls said, “What makes him talk like that? Has he got false teeth?” Alabama hasn’t heard the last of that yet.

How They Name Bombers

LITTLE ITEMS—Every bomber has its name painted on the nose, and most of them have weird pictures to go with the name. . . . Alley-Oop riding a bomb is one of them. . . . Walt Disney's animals appear often. . . . Many bomber captains name their ships after their baby daughters at home. . . . For each raid they paint a bomb about six inches long above the ship’s name. And for each German plane brought down, they paint a small red swastika. I saw one plane that had 10 bombs and five swastikas on it. . Each station has one extra bomber crew, in order that there can be one crew on leave all the time. A whole crew goes to London, relaxes for

a couple of days or more, and as soon as it gets back another crew goes,

By Ernie Pyle

I'm a veteran of|

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

A CITY VISITOR approaching the Hotel Washington Saturday night probably would have thought he was looking at the world’s tallest laundry. The last three letters of the big sign on the hotel weren’t lighted, leaving the sign reading: WASHING . .. The corners of the north approach to the circle are being rounded by a street department crew—to facilitate .the flow of traffic . . . The circle still needs some better directional signs. Visitors still get confused over which way to turn . . « And some signs on the circle showing the directions—north, south, east and west—also would Be a blessing to newcomers and visitors who have trouble finding

their way off the circle . . . L.'

Strauss & Co. has a big Merry Christmas sign across the front of the store already » + . Seen oh Ohio near Delaware: An elderly man wearing a pair of yellow button shoes, a wing collar and all the trimmings.

Cop Cat Missing

THE STATE POLICE department has just had a major CATastrophe. It’s chief mouser—a gray alley cat—has disappeared. The cat, which never was given a regular (name other than “Kitty,” wandered into the-headquarters one day last July. It decided ! to stay, and various members of the force, headed _ by Sergt. Oscar Burkett, have supervised its feeding. The cat didn’t confine its activities to the police offices—it wandered all over the building on occasion, . sometimes even into the governor's office. Governor Schricker sometimes stopped to pet the feline. It was seen last Thursday, but has been missing ever since. The state police detectives have been searching for it—even checked with the dog pound—but looking for a gray cat in this town is like looking for a needle in a hay stack . . . Speaking of Governor "Schricker, the Chicago Tribune had a picture of him Sunday as he attended the Michigan-Notre Dame game, and referred to him .as Henry F. Schreker. Wonder What the Trib means by WGN?

Washington

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17.—If Lady Luck stays with us in North Africa we might have Italy reeling in chaos and virtually out of the war by Christmas. With the breaks our way it would be a real possibility. In stressing the importance of the breaks, I do not minimize the careful preparation that went into this North African offensive. Yet, careful as | it was, we would not have been | able to do the job up to now as smoothly -as we have if luck had been against us. For instance, at this time of year there is just about one day out of four when you can make a | surf landing on the west coast Africa in the way it had to be done around Casablanca. The weather broke our way and Gen. George S. Patton was able to move ashore. Had it been one of the bad-weather nights—as the previous might was—our forces would have arrived off the coast to face 12- or 15-foot waves that would have made a beach landing impossible. Our convoys would have had to stand off, and remain exposed to sub- - marine attack, while waiting for calm’ landing surf. Also, the driving effect of simultaneous landings everywhere would have been weakened.

And Now the Race 1s On

OR. HAD GEN. MARK W. CLARK and his party not been able to make that swim to their craft that was to take them back after they had secretly spied put the lay of the land, we would have had to undertake the campaign with grossly inadequate information as to troop strength and dispositions, fortifica-

tions; the temper of the French forces and population.

Gen. Clark’s boat upset. You read about him josing his pants and his pocketfuls of gold. He and his party almost lost their lives. It was only with the help of luck that they reached the vessel that

My Day

LONDON, England, Monday.—On Friday evening a few old friends dined with us and on Saturday I went over to make a pesarcing early in the morning. On my return to the apartment, I had a very interesting : with Mr. Ernest Bevin and Mr. Ince. After that, 3 “the high commissioners of four dominions came to call and Gen. ‘Smuts also dropped in. | I feel sorry that I have not been able to see much of the work ne here for, and with, the dominion groups, but in many ways it seems to be similar to the work done by the British and AmeriI stopped at the British speakunion a little later and met a umber of their board members nd other ed guests. I post from which gifts from the in , are issued.

though every ; not. ons Tight must shine out

You'll Get a Ticket, Roy

A PERSONAL NOTE to Leroy J. Keach, commission merchant and president of the city safety board: That red truck, double parked and unattended on Meridian st. opposite the federal building, jamming traffic at 8:10 a. m. yesterday, was one of yours. The name on the side was J. L. Keach. Tsk, tsk, Roy! Aren’t you afraid the cops will get you? . . . Office employees of the Power & Light are kidding Corinne Hood, a mail cashier, about a little mistake the other day. According to the yarn, she opened a letter and found a check. Presumably it was to pay a light bill, but no stub was included to show the address of the person paying. She looked it up in the phone book, then told her boss: “That man is a pallbearer.” Surprised, he asked how she could tell. She looked it up again, then replied: “Oh, maybe I was wrong. After his name it says “Plb,” but that could mean plumber, too, I suppose.”

Deep in the Jungle

TRAVELING ALONG a road being built by the navy through the jungle on an island “somewhere in the south Pacific,” Machinist's Mate 2/c George Harmon Jr. (formerly of the Langsenkamp plant) ran across the following road sign: “Any resemblance between this road and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Is purely coincidental. Speed limit is still 20 mph.” . . . Sergt. Clifton D. Chalfant, army air corps communications section, has been transferred to Wendover, Utah . , . Lieut. Frank R. Etter, marine corps dentist, has sent home from Guadalcanal a letter, on captured Japanese stationery and with it some Japanese money—10 yen. Probably some of the stage money they put out to avoid the appearance of confiscating goods in the occupied territories .« » Lieut. Robert Efroymson, the attorney, who has been home over the week-end, leaves for a new assignment (it's a military secret) tomorrow . . . Pvt. Jim Mueller, a brand new marine, writes his father, Gus Mueller, from San Diego that he’s won a sharpshooter's medal ‘(45-caliber pistol) already. Jim writes that if he ever gets through the course, he’ll be so tough “nobody can kill me.”

By Raymond Clapper

was to carry them out with their indispensable report. Those are only two of the many instances in which good luck played on our side to back up the thorough preparations that had been made. Now the race is on for Tunisia. We are fighting axis forces there. Our chances depend on getting in before the Germans are able to ferry in enough reinforcements to obtain superiority over us. If we take Tunisia, the axis will have to leave Africa. We will be within 100 miles of Italian territory. We can start bombing Italy at short range.

Allied Policy Is Clear

ITALY IS A PRISONER of Germany, lashed to Hitler's chariot. Elements inside Italy realize that the only way Italy can recover her freedom is to check out of the axis, shake loose from fascist leaders and win the help of the allies. We are ready to assist Italy to get back on her

feet and protect herself from further German dom-|

ination—which has been at Italy’s expense throughout the war, down to the desertion of Italian soldiers in Rommel’s retreat from Egypt. Allied policy was made clear by Assistant Secretary of State Berle over the week-end when he told the Mazzini society in New York that the United States hopes for the day when we can once more welcome into the brotherhood of civilization a free

. and friendly Italian nation, giving again to the world

the fruit of her culture and traditions. Thus, Berle says, Italy has the opportunity to make a decision that will achieve freedom. On the one side is the prospect of Christmas spent: under allied bombs, and perhaps more than that if all goes well in the next few weeks. If we take Tunis, nothing that Germany can do will save Italy from something infinitely worse than England suffered during the blitz. Every possible means is being used to get the word of this opportunity spread around among the people of Italy.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Second hand garments can be given out without coupons. That means a great deal to people who have been bombed out and have nothing left. Then we went to another room, where guides are furnished to Americans over here and any information Aericans may desire can be obtained. I think this is a most valuable service, sts if anything is more confusing than to land in London and be friendless, it is to find oneself alone in New .York City. If you lose your way here in a fog, you are apt to be a long while finding your way again. People have been known to take four hours to reach a place, where in ordinary times could be walked in 15 minutes. I think one of the greatest difficulties for our American men is the fact that there really are so few ways of getting about. After a comparatively early hour, the busses and trains become fewer as time goes by and the blackout is so gloomy it is far pleasanter to stay in a well-lighted cheerful house, even

(This is the second of a series) By CHARLES T. LUCEY Times Special Writer : SIT DOWN with Charles. Erwin Wilson, president of General Motors, and hear him out on the subject of

mass production. This friendly, gray-haired but young-at-52 head of the vast GM enterprises has a right to talk. The third-of-a-million craftsmen on GM production lines have: turned’ out more than a billion dollars’ worth of war goods already this year. He is the man under whose direction those lines in a few months were shifted, in a modern industrial miracle, from the plush goods of peacetime to the desperately-needed tools of war. Mr. Wilson lays down two premises. First, that mass production isn’t an offshoot of the business of turning out goods, but is fundamental in itself—it is a technique that can be applied to almost anything. Second, the need for fine balance between centralized policy and decentralized administration. Huge quantity output in autos or guns, he points out, demands three essentials — accurate drawings and bills of materials; balanced capacity for all operations in the processes through the plants; balanced flow of materials through your plant facilities, including those obtained from subcontractors.

Bottleneck Danger

“YOU CAN COMPLETELY centralize policies in defining an objective,” Mr. Wilson says, “but you cannot centralize administrative detail. If you do the people {rying to operate with such complete central authority become bottle‘necks. “Heads of our plants can go

of expense, with their changes in processing. If they had to come to me every time they want to make a change there wouldn't be

“tions. in

ahead, within certain broad limits -

Machines (left) are milling hatches and gun. ports of turrets for M-4 tanks,

Mass Production Balances Methods, Plant Capacities

many changes made becaise there are not enough hours in the day or days in the week. ° “Ninety per cent of the time the man on the job can make the decision ‘and go ahead .on it. “This means the men have initiative ‘and take. satisfaction in their jobs. They are looking for better . ways to do things. They

‘run the business as if they owned

it. Remenger that these operaGM. are huge—if they were independent industries they

still would be big companies.

“We do business between one.

GM division and another- just as independent outside companies do. If IT had to allocate the work among the plants and someone

“didn’t. do certain jobs, then every-

one would come to me. But if we push it back to where the job is done the responsibility is there, too. *

“Part of Philosophy

That’s a part of the philosophy back of the job GM is doing—give the plant managers and supervisors and foremen enough rope so that they can throw their own ingenuity and initiative into winning this war. “You haven't been around to see

: my plant in a year,” one manager

complained to Mr. Wilson. “You're getting along fine,” the GM. president replied. “I go to the ones that are in trouble.” How did the ball start rolling on the massive task set for GM? “When the defense program started,” Mr. Wilson . explains, «we said we didn’t know where it was going and that we’d better

get defense jobs for every one of

our 44 plant cities—the people in them will want this. As the program grew we decided there should be defense jobs not just in each GM town, but in every plant in each town. “After Pearl Harbor we said we'd put a war job in -every plant we had or-turn the plant over to someone who could get a job for it.

Laying the track for

“Then, we said that military strategy may change and there should be two or more jobs in each plant and that each plant should have more than one string to its bow: so we could be more flexible, providing a continuity of employment and better service for army and navy.” Thal’s how the man at the top sees it. Go out on the GM lines to see how it works.

” ” Big and Small

On these lines you see men working on everything from tiny ‘ball bearings to 30-ton tanks and in each case dealing in thousandths of an inch; on guns and

»

plane ‘engines and shells and liter- .

ally hundreds of parts for the weapons ‘of war — not merely making these things as they have been made for a long time elsewhere but with a brand-new mass production technique never seen before in war production. There are the Fisher Body plants at Flint, where the 30-ton General Sherman tanks are being built and where huge, newly-built machine fixtures lift a 10-ton tank turret and, between welding operations, turn it as if it were a thimble. Here the production wizards have arranged a revolving steel table so. that it supports three turrets — 30 tons — while a huge drilling machine. comes in to work from one side and a giant milling machine from the other side. While the mill smooths down the hatches, gun openings and pistol ports, the drill on the other side is piercing holes for the bolts to hold the guns. In other days, milling each turret separately, then moving it to «the drill. machine, would have re-

quired 120 hours for three turrets.

‘Today, milling and .drilling at the same time and working on three rather than one machine, efficiency is stepped up six-to-one,

Look down the long rows of giant boring and drilling machines and you seem fo see columns of almost human mechanical behemoths handling huge tank cast-

ings with incredible ease, placing them just so, grinding and polishing and boring with the most exacting accuracy, then lifting them and passing them on to Ye next operation. When cast turrets were difficult to get and threatened to slow tank output, Fisher turned to a fabricated turret of armor plate using towering presses once used on autos to bend steel to the ‘shape needed. This saved costly and time-consuming welding. It meant less machining time and a ballistically more resistant turret. Nobody had ever put tanks on a moving conveyor line until Fisher did it. You can barely see the line move, but if hadn’t stopped once since July. Welding upper and lower halves of the tank hull was a much longer and more difficult job before Fisher built its giant pit fixtures which flip the ponderous parts back and forth for welding. Welding has become a wondrous thing as employed in the auto industry’s war-production job. Not the kind of welding you knew a few years back, when you smashed ‘your auto bumper, had it welded and then saw it break again in the same place in a short while. Today the weld is often stronger than the two parts it joins. ’ » % ”

Magic in Electricity

At the Buick plant in Flint, which under GM Vice President Harlow H. Curtice is demonstrating amazing versatility in the va- : riety of war goods it is producing, there is magic in electric welding. Earlier practice in welding separately each of the four balancers on Diesel engine crankshafts, for example, meant a production of two or three shafts an hour. Buick engineers designed and built an

a new all-welded M-4, 30-ten tank.

electric welding machine which

“welds all four balancers simul-

taneously at a great time saving. Making the Pratt & Whitney airplane engine, Buick, by expert forge shop practice, has been able to save 65 pounds of steel on each engine. In a time when steel is short the number of engines being produced makes this a major raw materials economy. - Propeller shafts were forged from steel bar stock weighing 184 pounds, but the Buick engineers .

found a better way and start now with a bar weighing 165 pounds. Crankshafts were made of 300pound steel billets, but Buick does it now with 282-pound stock. A hand fixture originally specified to hold partly finished aircraft engine parts in a quenching operation — a ‘liquid bath — resulted in scrapping 35 per cent of shafts because of warping and distortion. A new automatically controlled quenching machine was devised. It has reduced losses through scrapping to a negligible minimum and will produce ‘six times as many crankshafts as the original method. Buick cut the time for ma"chining the 90-millimeter antiaircraft gun's traverse housing by nine hours. It built an aluminum cylinder-head foundry which reduced sharply the number of rejects. Faced with a shortage of seamless tubing intake pipe for the P-W engine from its suppliers, it rolled a flat sheet into a cylinder and welded it, in the same pattern formerly used in making torque tubes. These short cuts are not minor things, they are major—they put weapons into fighting men’s hands faster, they make raw materials go further, and they save money for Americans paying the bill for war. That's what industry ,can. do with the know-how bujbe ‘up over the years.

TOMORROW: R :

IN THEFT OF 19 CARS

The theft of 19 automobiles and burglary of more than half a dozen filling stations was solved today fol-

lowing the arrest of seven boys,

ranging in age from 14 to'17. They were given preliminary hearing in Juvenile court yesterday and all remanded to: the juvenile detention home pending disposition of their cases. Their trial will be delayed pending further investigation of what is believed to be an extensive juvenile crime ring.

Five other boys, all under 18

years of age, are being sought in| [2PZ connection with Similar theft ac-| §

tivities.

MUNICIPAL ELEC ELECTRIC.

The ' Indiana Municipal Electric association will hold its annual meeting ahd election of officers tomorrow at the Claypool hotel. The program includes talks by Earl Cassady of the state defense

aid and civilian defense; ‘Albert O. explain the latest priorities, and WwW.

municipalities.

the banquet address at 6:30 p. m. Superintendents and employees

tend.

CHOIR TO PRESENT PLAY ° ‘A musical play entitled

choir, 17th ‘and Rembrandt sts., ‘at 8

curtain must be carefully drawn a through a chink.

BOYS, 14 TO 17, HELD|

Axis Edyeition Play Is Revealed

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (U. P.). —The axis pattern of “education” was revealed yesterday in a pam-

phlet- published by the Inter-Allied

Informations center and distribed

by the office of war information. Publication was timed to coincide with the world-wide international students’ day demonstrations - memorializing the Nazi massacre of young men and women of Prague university. The OWI said the center’s pamphlet makes clear that the bru-

Total time is only 20 hours.

talities inflicted on educators ‘and students “are part of a coldly calculated. plan. . . . Totalitarian

gangsters. intend to wipe out not |

only the leaders but the potential leaders of the nations they would enslave.”

NEIGHBORS TO MEET Marion county camp, Royal Neighbors of America, will meet with the Northwestern camp in their hall, 28th and Rader sts, tomorrow evening. Mrs. Alice Clark, county oracle, will preside.

GROUP WILL MEET f

council ‘who will speak ‘on mutual} Evans, district manager, who will].

Vincent Youkey, director of the mu-|" nicipal league, who ‘will Speakon

Judge Marshall Abrams of the Greencastle circuit court: will -give :

of municipal electric. plants will at-

FUNNY BUSINESS

Sh

“My| 4 Book ‘of Memories” will be presented | by the Union Congregational church|

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' | sistant postmaster, inclusive,

ASKS DEFERMENT OF POSTAL EMPLOYEES

WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 (U. P.) — Postmaster General Frank C. Walker yesterday instructed postmasters, division superintendents, and bureau heads to ask local selective service boards to .re-classify in 3-B certain of the department’s employees now in 3-A. He instructed them to ask for reclassification: to 3-B—men with dependents deferred for ocgupational reasons—the following types of employees: _1. Departmental employees who hold" the rank of supervisor and have passed their 36th birthday. +2, Posteffice inspectors and chief clerks, assistant chief clerks and clerks in charge of sections of the postoffice = inspection service who

River Rouge.

Chicago Lines To Hire Women

CHICAGO, Nov. 17 (U, P.).— Women will run the city’s streetcars and:busses when manpower is no longer available, the Chicago Surface Lines and Chicago Motor Coach Co. said today. Although plans are not yet definite, employment of women has been considered for months, a Surface Lines official said. " The lines will use a plan drafted for the last war which was never used.

O. EB. S. CEREMONY SET Southport chapter 442, O. E. S.,

will hold a meeting and obligation ceremony at 8 p. m. tomorrow in the Southport Masonic temple. 1 Mrs, Opal Swords is: worthy matron and Howard Smith, worthy partion.

have passed their 36th birthday. 3. Railway mail service supervisors from the rank of clerk in charge to the rank of division superintendent, inclusive, and experienced mail distributors, if 36 or older. 4. Postoffice, custodial, and motor vehicle service supervisors from the rank of foreman to the rank of asand experienced mail distributors who are 36 or older.

CANADA CONTRACTS FOR WAR HOUSING

OTTAWA, Nov. 17 (U. P)—Wartime Housing Limited, the govern-ment-owned corporation set up to solve housing shortages in war centers, has awarded contracts for|| nearly - 15,000 ‘houses and other buildings in-more than 60 localities] across - Canada, - the, munitions and|, supply department’ announced to-| day. The estimated expenditure for

¢se buildings will be: $66,000,000.

HOLD ‘EVERYTHING