Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 November 1942 — Page 1

* ll SCRIPPS ~ HOWARD §

VOLUME 53—NUMBER 224

Indianapolis Times

FORECAST: Continued cold tonight. Not quite so cold tomorrow forenoon.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1942

re.

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind. Issued daily except Sunday.

FINAL HOME

"PRICE THREE CENTS

RENCH CREWS SCUTTLE FLEET S$ NAZIS MARCH INTO TOULON

=

Twin-Allison P-38's Pass First Big Test in North Africa

HINT MNT * AND ICKES MAY SWITCH POSTS

/ ¥ Capital Hears Latter Would

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ph >

Continue in Cabinet as Labor Secretary.

By DANIEL M. KIDNEY Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON, Nov. 27.—Manpower Commissioner Paul V.’ McNutt made his first comment regarding a probable shakeup in the Roosevelt cabinet today by saying ‘that he was ‘“‘sure none of the principals involved had yet been consulted.” The shakeup plan, as peporisd here, would involve shifting e former Indiana governor to the post "of Secretary of the Interior, making Mr. Ickes secretary of labor and giving him the manpower assignment, and placing Secretary of Labor Perkins as head of the social security agency, another position now held by McNutt. “¥ heard rumors of this plan about one week ago,” Mr. McNutt said today. “But the only thing of which I am certain is that none

—— of the three principals have yet

been consulted.” Talks to Laber Chiefs

Reporting the plan in the New ' York Times today, Louis Stark, outstanding labor reporter, pointed out that it was taken up by the, ,presi“dent at a conference with A. ¥. of L. President Willlam Green Na C. I. O. President Philip Murray and that they suggested putting Daniel J., Tobin, Indianapolis, in gs secretary of labor. . President Roosevelt reportedly turned down the suggestion that the secretaryship go fo the president of the teamsters’ union, but added that Mr. Ickes would put in A. F.of L. and C. I. O. men as top aids. Declines Comment More discussion of the matter is scheduled by the president with one of his principal advisers on administration—Judge Samuel I. Rosenman of the New York supreme court—according to the Stark story. This would be the first reshuffling of the cabinet since F. D. R. launched the new dealin 1933. Mr. McNutt declined to say whether or not he would take the interior post. ~ “Of course I cannot comment at this time,” he said.

REPORT NORSE JEWS SHIPPED TO POLAND

! STOCKHOLM, Nov. 27 (U. P).— ‘ The Swedish telegraph agency to- ‘ day reported that 1000 Norwegian Jewish men, women and children were herded aboard a freighter at Oslo yesterday for deportation to Poland, where the Nazis reportedly

} are carrying out a program to kill

* off 50 per cent of all Jews by the ‘ end of the year.

- MERCHANT VESSEL SUNK IN ATLANTIC

' SHINGTON, Nov, 27 (U. P.) .— A npiedium-sized United 6 States merchant, vessel was torpedoed and k in the South Atlantic early in October, the navy announced today. + Survivors have landed at an east ' coast port.

BUFFALOES AID CHINESE CALCUTTA, Nov. 27 (U, P). — Chinese machine gunners rode on the backs of water buffaloes through deep swamps, impasable by any other means, to surprise and wipe out many Japanese troops, the Chinese ministry of information disclosed today. There were 400. animals in the night attack, each carrying two soldiers,

w

TIMES FEATURES ON INSIDE PAGES

Inside Indpls. 21 Jane Jordan... 24 Men in Service 16 Millett ...... 22 Movies ...... 18 Obituaries '... 8 Pyle 1

Mrs. Roosevelt 21 Side Glances. 22 Society .., 23, 24 Sports ... 26, 27 State Deaths. .8 Stokes

| boys, the other for girls.

EAS RATIONING |'Sweetest Plane in the Air’

FIGHT GOES ON

Roosevelt Says Plan Must Take Effect Tuesday; " ‘Anti’ Bloc Meets.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (U. P). —Leaders of the congressional antirationing bloc meet today to consider. for outlawing ' the. gasoline rationing program in oilsurplus areas in spite of President Roosevelt's warning that. nationwide rationing must start next Tuesday to prevent delay of victory. A spokesman for western congressmen who have resolved against extension of gasoline rationing to their states said: “We know we cannot prevent rationing from going into effect now, but possibly we can outlaw it before too much harm is done.”

Roosevelt Threatens Veto

Rep. Hatton W. Sumners (D. Tex.), chairman of the antirationing bloc’s steering committee,

to get a postponement of the deadline—Dec. 1—through presidential action. But President Roosevelt smashed that hope last night in identical letters to Mr. Jeffers and Mr. Henderson. He also made it plain that he would veto any legislation designed to disrupt the rationing plan. ‘Mr. Roosevelt told Mr. Jeffers and Mr. Henderson that the need for nation-wide gasoline rationing as a rubber conservative measure “grows more acute . , . with every day that passes.” The army and navy must have rubber, he said, and civilians must conserve their tires. : He quoted the Baruch commit- * (Continued on Page Five)

COFFEE 1S SPILLED, POLICE TO RESCUE

ELIZABETH, N. J, Nov. 27.— The difference that rationing made:

A truck, taking 1150 cases of cof-

fee to an army camp, turned over. Before a crowd had time to gather, a squad of police rushed up and guarded the coffee as if it were gold, until it could be loaded on another and taken away.

I |

Downs 40 Enemy Aircraft

ADVANCE HEADQUARTERS, U. S. 12TH AIR FORCE IN NORTH

MERCURY AT 20, SEASON'S LOW

ALLIES BATTLE AXIS 10 MILES

Another Column Advances On Bizerte; Russians Turn Enemy Flank.

By HARRISON SALISBURY United Press Staff Correspondent Axis forces in North Africa and Russia today fought to stem the rising momentum of allied offensives which threaten to unhinge their two southern fronts—in Tunisia and South Russia and the Caucasus. The tempo of African fighting was rising swiftly with allied columns moving close to Bizerte

and Tunis, the keys to the Nazi position in Tunisia. Dispatches from Africa reported

{that an allied force had driven the

OUTSIDE TUNIS

"AFRICA, Nov. 25 (Delayed) (U.P.).—The Lockheed P-38, lightning pow-

ered with two Allison engines, got its first big chance against the enemy |yesterday and scored the most impressive aerial triumph of the North African campaign, destroying-40 axis planes including 11 troop transports.

| Germans from the important center

Drops 34 Degrees in 24

‘campaign gave the P-38’s their first admitted that his group had hoped |

series of raids with the fleetest U.| S.-made fighters and pronounced | them “one of the sweetest flying planes in the air.” This did not provide a test for the “P=88s 1h high altitude combat, but did establish the effectiveness of the plane's outstanding qualities of speed, range and hitting power.

Protect! B-17’s

In five previous operations in Tunisia, the. P-38’s proved their superiority in grouynd-gunning and tank-busting. They also have shown their excellence in escort operations, fanning a protective cover for the big flying fortresses in raids against axis airdromes in the vi-

cinity of Tunis and Bizerte. Yankee pilots agreed that this

real chance to prove their worth against such top German fighters as the Messerschmitt 109-G and the Focke-Wulf 190. Tuesday’s operations marked them as a distinct new threat to ground forces, armored columns and grounded planes. These swift fighters were able to sweep in at tremendous speed, dive on their targets with guns rattling and roar off again before the enemy can take counter action.

Downed 9 in Combat

The P-38's shot down nine enemy planes in combat, including two Junkers 88. Four American planes were damaged, but none was lost. In earlier raids wherein Messerschmitt 109’s challenged the Lockheeds, U, S. airmen had little chance to prove the ability of their planes because the German pilots darted in and out in evasive maneuvers and avoided coming to grips in a showdown fight. Previously, the Lightning had been used in the Aleutians and Solomons fighting, and in escort duty with U. S. flying fortresses in raids over Burope. It has been operating over Europe since Sept. 1, but the announcement was held up because the Germans may not have

discovered it at its high altitude.

Maj. Gen. James H. Doolittle’s sky veterans came back from a

GHILD, 5, DIES AFTER

BOY-OF 12 BEATS HIM

Youth Confesset. Earlier

Denied Knowing.

COLUMBIA, Mo., Nov. 27 (U. P) —Herbert ‘Fox, 12, appears at an inquest today to tell how he beat 5-year-old Billy Edwards Meadows and then concealed the truth that might have saved Billy's life. Herbert told police nothing about the beating when they questioned him Wednesday night after Billy was reported missing. A soldier on furlough found Billy’s body yesterday, and Herbert confessed. He told police that Billy had cursed at him while two were riding double on Herbert's bicycle. He said he hit Billy on the back of the head, knocking him off. Then he picked up the: smaller. boy and slung him

back on the ground “four or five|

times,” he said, until Billy couldn't answer when he asked him to get up to be taken home. Herbert said he took the boy's coat and made a pillow for his head before he himself went home to bed. “I wish I had told the police the truth last night,” he said today.

6 CHILDREN BURN TO DEATH IN WISCONSIN

ASHLAND, Wis., Nov. 27 (U. P.). —Six Indian children, ranging from 7 months to 7 years old, burned to death today while their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harvey Denomie, were away from their home on the Bad River reservation near here. Julia Bear, 16, said she awakened to find the family’s house in flames, apparently ignited by an overheated stove. The girl, who was taking care of the children while their father worked at a shipyards tried to carry the baby to safety, but was obliged to drop it and dive through a window.

| igrees.

Hours and May Go

Down Again.

Indianapolis shivered in the cold- | est weather of the season today !when ‘the mercury slid down to 20, a drop of 34 degrees in 24 hours, It will be just as cold; or perhaps colder, again tonight, the” weather bureau forecast. The cold wave swept in on the crest of a high wind from the northwest early yesterday when temperatures dropped from 54 to 30 de-

Last night the wintry blast increased and the mercury tumbled at the rate of about two degrees every hour.

LOCAL TEMPERATURES 6a. m ... 21 10a. m ... 23 Tam... 21 Mam... 27 Sam... 20 12 (noom) ,

9a. m ... 21 1p. m.

2 KILLED, 6 HURT IN RIOTING AT PHOENIX

Clash Begins When Soldier

Resists Arrest.

PHOENIX, Ariz., Nov. 27 (U. P.). —Two persons were killed late last night and six were injured in a riot which developed when a Negro military policeman shot a Negro soldier who resisted arrest, police said today. Sheriff's officers, police and military officials quelled the free-for-all early today, about an hour after it began. Friends of the policeman rushed to his aid. They were met by partisans of the soldier, several of them armed. Chief of Police Don E. Stewart said within a few minutes the street was a brawling mass of Negroes and whites, soldiers and civilians, some armed and shooting, and some swinging clubs. Names of the victims were withheld at the request of military of-

. 30

of Medjez-el-Bab, 35 miles southwest of Tunis, and had moved straight up the main railroad line to positions ‘possibly about 10 miles distant from the Tunisian capital.

Allied Air Power Gives Axis Trouble

| A second column was reperted

moving along parallel lines only a little farther from Bizerte, Allied air power was being felt increasingly in the African theater despite every effort by the Germans to crowd as many planes into Tunisia as could be accommodated in the limited number of airdromes available in the Bizerte-Tunis area. Ten axis planes were destroyed on the ground at an airdrome near Tunis and another 12 were shot down in combat by royal air force fliers.

Luftwaffe Strained

British observers noted increasing strain on the German luftwaffe as it attempted to disperse its forces widely enough to cover both the threatened front in Africa and the active Russian fronts. Allied planes, they said, can now cover shipping

from Gilbraltar to Alexandria. A Madrid report indicated that Marshal Henri Philippe Petain may have swayed close to the allied side in the final days before the German occupation of all of France. The report asserted he had made arrangements to allow French officers to escape ahead of the Nazi occupation but that Premier Laval got wind of what was afoot and thwarted the plan. Gen. Maxime Weygand and three other generals, it was s@id, were preparing to leave {Continued on Page Five)

WAR ALREADY WON, QUEZON DECLARES

WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 (U. P.). —President Manuel Quezon of the Philippine commonwealth said today that he believed the war already has been won’ for the allies and that he hopes to be back in the Philippines before the end of next year. Quezon made his observations to reporters after conferring for nearly

ficers. One civilian and one sol-

dier were killed.

an hour with Secretary of State Cordell Hull.

Indiana’s Own Report Puts State 37th in Care of Mental Patients

By NORMAN E. ISAACS The state of Indiana—I12th in population and 15th in terms of assessed valuation—formally ranks itself as 37th in its “efficiency of

treatment” in its mental hospitals. This startling admission in itself highlights the need for sweeping reform in Indiana’s handling of its whole institutional program. Indiana maintains 20 separate institutions. None of them have any apparent relation to each other in operation. Even those in the same classification are utterly unlike in method, in plan, in operation. We have | five hospitals for the treatment of mental diseases. Two schools for the feeble-minded. One for epileptics. Two prisons. A reformatory. A state penal farm. ‘ Two correctional schools—one for

Two tuberculosis hospitals.

Voice in Bal.. 18

sailors’ children’s home and the state soldiers’ home. Holding these institutions into a single, flimsy framework is a complex series of laws which, when broken down, disclose that Indiana has merely combined the worst features of archaic feudalism with the more modern holding company racket. Previous articles in this newspaper have shown that startlingly low wage scales are literally driving employees out of the state institutions (some receive as little as $55 a month for 84-hour weeks with $25 a month deducted for maintenance and with only one day off a month!) That almost all of the state’s institutions need competent personnel to avoid a disaster of complete breakdown. That the state's reformatory is a reformatory in name only, that the lack of an educational program is giving Indiana a tremendously high “repeater” Population in its prisons,

A schoo) fos Lhe bing, another tions.

In short, that the state is actually| The superintendent works with a It needs to attract and train com-

losing vast sums of money—money board of trustees (a board of four), petent personnel;

obtained through taxation—while it whittles away at appropriations under the guise of saving money. Indiana needs, according to competent experts, a four-point reform program: 1. A CO-ORDINATED PROGRAM.

2. COMPLETE CIVIL SERVICE.

3. A BRAND-NEW CRIMINAL CODE. 4, IMPROVEMENT AND EXPANSION OF ITS PHYSICAL PLANTS. In more detail, this program. follows: 1. PROGRAM

Indiana needs ONE hoard—perhaps a four-man bipartisan board— with ONE director to co-ordinate and supervise the whole structure of the 20 state institutions. This director and this board should have the authority and the power to operate all’ the institu-

over each institution is a superin-

also appointed by the governor. Each superintendent has the power to interpret the law, to make policies, to run his own institution as he sees fit. As it works now, some superintendents co-operate warmly with state agencies delegated to- assist

them; other superintendents resisty

Indiana needs to establish some definite pattern of integrated operation. It is obviously impossible now. A ruling board—WITH THE POWER—seems called for.

2. CIVIC SERVICE

Indiana has belatedly started on a merit system basis in its institutions, but with considerable backfiring from political leaders who fear it may curb their authorities. : Michigan and New Jersey have led the way for many state with a COMPLETE civil service program, with adequate. pay ranges, a civil

to provide pension systems; and to insure continued able administration and operation without regard to politics. Indiana needs not only to keep its merit system, it needs to expand it into a full civil service,

3. CRIMINAL CODE

It has been shown that Indiana's criminal code is such a patchwork affair that judges daily find themselves perplexed as to which law to follow. The result has been a steady flow of “corrections” by the governor at the recommendation of the state division of corrections. Such a new criminal code is already in the process of preparation, under the sponsorship of the Indiana council on crime and delinquency. Indeed, a draft of a proposed law has already been made, clarifying and simplifying Indiana’s criminal code.

> 4, PHYSICAL PLANTS Indiana's institutions are already

service program which neludes even the Supsiyitengets. ¢

_In addition,

.

rom land bases almost all the way!

BIG BATTLESHIP

STRASBOURG IS VICTIM OF BLAS

Hitler Scraps Last Vestige of Armistice, Hands Nation’s Control Over To Von Rundstedt.

By JOE ALEX MORRIS United Press Foreign Editor

LONDON, Nov. 27 (U. P.).—The pride of the French Battle fleet, headed by 26,500-ton Strasbourg, was blown up and scuttled in Toulon harbor today, according to French reports, to prevent it falling into the hands of Adolf Hitler, Simultaneously, Hitler ordered the French army dee mobilized on the grounds that France was unable to defend itself. In Vichy, the cabinet deprived Admiral Jean Francois Darlan and Gen. Henri Giraud of French citizenship because of their participation with the allies in the African offensive.

Strasbourg Blown Up With Mighty Blast Havas dispatches broadcast by the Vichy radio revealed that the Strasbourg was blown up with a mighty explosion when Nazi forces—acting on Hitler's orders—scrapped the last vestige of the Franco-German armistice and raced into Toulon today. The example set . by the Strasbourg crew—presumably at the cost of many of their own lives—was Followed quickly by the other ships of the French armada which lay in Toulon harbor, French reports said. It appeared that while Hitler's sudden: maneuver had kept the French fleet out of allied hands it had also denied him any hope of using the ships himself.

Ships Lie Sunken at Anchorage

The Havas dispatches reported the ships now lie sunken at their anchorages in the debris filled Toulon harbor. The action of the French crews apparently sent to the bottom the greatest naval tonnage which had been scuttled since the day that the German crews of the imperial navy sank their ships at Scapa Flow rather than allow them to be turned over to the allies at the end of the first world war, All of these ships, according to the Havas reports, were sunk by their crews while Nazi bombers roared over the . harbor, dropping magnetic mines, flares and bombing the harbor fortifications. German panzer columns at that moment were racing into the town, smashing resistance wherever it was encountered. Havas reported that “many casualties were caused as real fighting developed.” ;

French Turn Ack-Ack Guns on Nazis

French gun crews both ashore and afloat opened up with their anti-aircraft guns against the Nazi bombers. Some, of the ships attempted to make a getaway to sea but it was not believed any succeeded. Havas reported that “most of the French captains™ and many crew members went down with their ships to their death.

was the spectacle of all these beautiful warships,” said Havas, “the pride of France, lying on their sides with thick clouds of smoke rising from them.” ~~ The courage of the sailors of the French fleet was emulated by their comrades ashore manning the coastal defense batteries. When they saw that resistance would not hold off the German attack, they spiked their guns and blew: up the magazines. A Some of the French crews—finding that their ships could not be scuttled due to repairs in progress—turned theig own guns on each other, smashing and damaging the wars ships so they would be useless to the Germans.

Harbor Echoes With Explosions

At nightfall tonight, the French reports said, the ships still lay blazing and the dull boom of intermittent explosions echoed over the harbor as flames gradually ate their way.

into sunken magazines. The naval arsenal, said these reports, was blown up wd ORE CARRIER BOUND SHOPPING. FOR INDIANA AGROUND =X DAYS LEFT: CHICAGO, Nov. 271 (U. P.).—The Hl CONNIE coli Inland Steel Co. reported that one had run aground in the straits of Mackinac during a heavy snow |! storm last night. The company said the ship, which Chicago, Ind. apparently was undamaged and was not hard aground. Visability was poer when the accident occurred, officials said. Two

(Continued on Page Ten) of its ore carrier's, the N. F. Leopold, was en route to steel mills at East Eg isin d |

“At the end of the day—a terrible and sad day—there : ;