Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 1 December 1942 — Page 13

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“TUESDAY, DEC. I, 1942

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Hoosier Vagabond

Editor's Note: Ernie Pyle is due to reach Africa today. The following is one of several articles he wrote

: before his departure.

LONDON (Delayed). —Visting Americans are always commenting on the British facility for digging up little-used, highly appropriate words and making a out of them. Most Americans, for instance, think Yausiernty is a stroke of genius. Personally I never thought much of it as a term for wartime restrictions, largely because I had a misconception of what austere meant. I always thought it meant “haughty.” The other day I was talking with the people in the Board of

Trade, who handle “austerity” for Britain, and they're not so proud of the word. They aren’t going to change it, but they wish they had thought of something else. For “austerity” denotes a bleakness of llving, and that’s something they don’t want to keep throwing in people’s faces. They like their new word “utility” much better.

Which leads to a necessity for explaining the difference between the two words. “Austerity” refers to the vast set of rules by which practically every: hing manufacturable in Britain is governed. In ifs application, “austerity” is almost a way of life. :

State Socialism of Course

“AUSTERITY” REGULATES the material and labor that go info everything, but does not regulate price or quality. “Utility” steps in on top of “ausand in 80 per cent of the otuput of any certain field it regulates quality and price. The other 20 per éent if loft flopping over on both ends—Ilow

' quality on one end, high price on the other.

Here is the reason for “utility.” When the gov-

. ernment limited supplies to an industry—15 per cent

.manufacturers making fancier things with what little material they had, for they could then charge higher prices with more profit. Hence the poor man took it on the nose, for there wasn’t enough stuff being made in his price range. “Utility” takes care of that, by forcing 80 per cent of the output of certain industries to’ give him a good quality at moderate price. Through “utility”: the average Englishman today gets the best value for his money he’s ever had. It's state socialism, of course, but then this is wartime,

What's This, Ernie? What's This?

UTILITY SO FAR has got into only a few fields— clothing, furniture, mattresses, cigaret lighters, wedding rings. It will gradually spread until (if the war lasts that long, which it probably won’t) utility will cover everything austerity covers. It is not the aim to make “utility” control each field 100 per cent. The goal is 80 per cent. The government wants to leave the remaining 20 per cent for the exercise of free choice at any price. That 20 per cent won't hurt the war effort, for “austerity” exercises the material-labor control over it. " Very few “utility” items are on the market so far. Clothes have been on for a year now, but the system won’t reach its full flowering in the clothing world till next spring. Utility furniture has just been introduced at a public display, but none has yet been made for the market. Lighters are already utility. They sell for $1.30. Several manufacturers make utility lighters, and there is still room within the regulations to allow difference in design. The Board of Trade is careful not to call its utility wedding rings “Utility.” Somehow tney feel that doesn’t quite fit with marriage. They hunted around for a better name. “Victory rings.” But somebody brought up the question “Victory for whom—him or her?” They dropped that. Finally they settled on “Standard.” That's what it is now. The “Standard” wedding ring is plain ninecarat gold, and sells for $5.10. I've bought half a

or 30 per cen or whatever of prewar—that resulted in dozen.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

A BIT HOMESICK, Pvt. Lloyd Moore got on the phoné down at Camp Campbell, Ky. and called his mother, Mrs. C. G. Moore, out at 440 Bell st. Then he talked to his dad, and to a brother. That was fine, as far as it went, but Pvt. Moore wasn’t satisfied yet. “I want to talk to Mickey,” he said. And so the family rounded up Mickey, Pvt. Moore’s pet cat, now about 10 years old, and held the receiver to Mickey's ear. “Hello, Mickey,” said his master, and Mickey began purring like an outboard motor. Pvt. Moore fell asleep with a smile on his face Saturday night. . . . Note to City Engineer M. G. Johnson: Thanks for making Inside Indianapolis look good by putting up those di- / rectional (N-S-E-W) signs so people won't iet-lost on the Circle and go round an round. . . , Note to people who are lost: One of thie signs is i11 front of the electric building on the Circle, anothe: is at Illinois and Market and the -hird at Illino's and Washington. They were bought

jand donated {1 the city by Al Waisman,

10n the Mi/itary Front

ART BAK7R, manager of the Circle theater for 10 years or so, leaves today for Camp . Breckenridge, Ky. as a firsi lieutenant, He’ll"be assigned to the job “of arranging stage entertainment for various , Dale Miller, former secretary of the Indianapolis baseball club and for many years a state basketball tournament referee, put on a uniform as a first lieutenart and left last night for Camp Campbell, Ky., where he'll have, charge ‘of activities and recreation. . . , Bill Eggert, The Times’ sports writer, is just a year late. War was declared Dec. 8, 1941. Bill reports out at Ft. Harrison to be fitted for a unis form Dec. 8, 1342, , , , Capt. Arthur Prine, the former advertising salesman, stopped off in- Indianapolis yesterday, en rou fe back to the marine barracks at Jacksonville, Fla. He has charge of the guard detachment. . . . Carl Thorbahn, former editor of The Union and new with the WPB, expects to be wearing a private’s uniform within a couple of weeks.

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1.—Please excuse the harping, but everybody is shaking. hands with himself that the war is being won, which is all right except for the. next thought, which is that we can let down because it will soon be over. The closer we come to . victory, the more stuff we will need to drive over the knockout punch. The point is to try to explain why it is you can’t expect to be getting more sugdr and coffee, and other things that depend on shipping, just because the war is going our way. The fact that we are in action and are driving ahead means more shipping must go into supplying the fronts, hence less shipping to bring you coffee, : sugar and some other things that are swell to have when you can have them without

* getting in the way of the war.

For every man we landed in North Africa, seven

' tong of shipping were required. For every man we

have there, ‘ve will need to set aside a ton and a half of shipping to keep that man supplied. Judge Paiterson, undersecretary of war, said re-

"cently that the North African expedition carried

more than 700,000 different items of equipment, inFrom now on far more than }alf, in weight, of the supplies that go to North Affica will consist of fuel and lubricants. That means tankers, and less chance than ever for more gasolir 2 on the east coast for automobile driv-

ing. Censorship Has Been Unfortunate

IT WOULD HELP in.this country a lot if the OWI and censorship shook loose with more background on ‘hat kind of thing. We are a long way from taking the war into close terms. We put out tons of blurb about the war but not nearly enough

information. -

My Day

WASHINGTON, Monday. —Yesterday was a qulet day. On Shturday evening, one of our sons, who has just returned from a very long tour of duty, and his wife spent i1e night and we enjoyed hearing all about

t his adventu: es, On Sunday, in Hyde Park, I tried to

make many of my Christmas plans for the various places in which we celebrate the Christmas season. I enjoyed walking in the’ woods, though most of the leaves are now gone and one has to enjoy the winter beauty of bare trees, Today I am back in Washington holding a press conference, speaking on the radio with Mrs. Esther Tufty, lunching with the Women's National Democratic club, and doing various other things the rest of

Those Pesky Sirens

POLICE INSPECTOR ED HELM wasn't feeling so good the other night, so he took some medicine for his cold and went to bed about 8 p. m. At exactly 3 minutes before 11 p. 'm. (police always get the exact time, you know), the inspector was awakened by the sound of sirens. Just then a locomotive whistle cut loose .in the distance with a series of blasts. To a police inspector that meant just one thing—a dimout. So he jumped out of bed and turned off a light left burning in the living room. He also turned out the small amber lamp he keeps burning beside the alarm clock. Then he went back to bed and slept until morning. Checking up, he found the siren must have been on a fire truck. , . . Remember that almost human automatic traffic signal at the intersection of Roads 31 and 431—the one that operated by magnetic devices in the pavement? Well, it’s finally back in service. The highway ‘department must have found a way to get the needed repairs. That light, which turns green when a car passes over the magnetic field, has quite a following among motorists,

On the Receiving End THE RICHARD BERNHARTS, out at 6709 Evanston ave., started out to be good samaritans on Thanksgiving day, and wound up on the receiving end themselves as the result of a series of misfortunes. They had invited four service men for a late afternoon dinner, and also had invited friends to drop in for refreshments earlier in the day. Mrs. Bernhart started the turkey cooking Thursday morning in the electric roaster. Then she opened the refrigerator door for something or other and the door fell off. Fairly new refrigerator, too. In the half hour it took to get it back, the frozen dessert melted. Then she discovered the electric roaster had stopped working—defective wiring or something. Mr. Bernhart hadn’t much more than gotten that fixed until friends arrived and asked to see ‘the turkey. Mrs. B. opened the roaster and discovered the turkey was spoiled. That was too much. Her husband phoned the service men’s center and withdrew the invitation to the service men and the Bernharts went home with their guests to a Thanksgiving turkey dinner.

By Raymond Clapper

. We are coming into the time when casualties will be heavy and when the expenditure of war material will make far greater demands on our civilian economy than we have felt thus far. The gasoline griping shows how ill-prepared we are to accept these deprivations which are still to come as we go deeper into the fighting. The impression I get from looking over some of the British material is that they are releasing a good deal more detailed information on the background of the war than we are. The political censorship which has been going on both here and in London is unfortunate. The British correspondents in the United States are complaining about American censorship of their copy on political matters, and American correspondents in London are complaining about London’s political censorship on their dispatches to the United States. In the course of the row the dirt comes out anyway.

Less Heoey and More Facts

INSTEAD OF THAT kind of political censorship, we would -be putting in time to much better advantage prying some things loose around here that would help people understand the war, and what it is taking. Speeches like that of Judge Patterson, describing the enormous number of military items that went into the North African expedition, will do more good than all the political censorship that can be imposed. The kind of information that Judge Patterson revealed could be provided about much of our war activity. It would enable people to understand this war in terms of things that go into it. If enough of that were done, it would-take the wind out of the gripers who are trying to drum up opposition to gasoline rationing and other necessary inconveniences caused by the war. We haven't completed the selling job on the home front by a long shot. Washington: is going to have to dish out less hooey and more facts before the job is done.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

- wr tive of the range of human interests here than anywhere else in ‘the world. It is true that in London, because of the influx of people from various conquered countries, you get a sense of touching closely the points of view of more European nations, On the other hand, in this hemisphere, the Far East and the European continents seems to touch each other more closely, and the North and South American people have a far more intimate relationship with each other. On the whole I think one gets a more complete perspective here, if one wishes to have it, than anywhere else in the world. This gives us, as a nation, a very great responsibility to prepare ourselves to understand and interpret to each other the various people who may meet here more easily than anywhere else in the world. It is a role which does not permit of isolationism in thought or deed, but which requires of us an ability to think -and to fee] with other nations, or ¥ we cannot interpret “what we do not understand.

For a while they considered]

Those Murals And Rugs Are ‘Merely Rented

The office of price administration for Indiana covers 14,000 square feet in the ballrooom-exhibition hall of the Murat theater.

Every government employee is entitled to a working space 10 feet by 10 feet. But here in the office of the OPA, ope of Hoosierland’s greatest industries, the 162 workers labor day in and day out in cramped quarters, Yet the setting is classic. Workers tread a marble floor and the office walls of James D. Strickland, state director, are covered with murals, the floor with a luxurious rug and the room is filled with comfortable, overstuffed chairs. But life within the classic setting is not all it seems.

» "2 =n

1785 Phone Calls Daily

WE'RE CRAMPED for space,” said Mr. Strickland today, “To top that, we are perhaps the only agency which hits almost every Hoosier. Every time a new article is added to the rationed list, or there ‘is talk of rationing, eur lobby, which looks so large, can not accommodate all who come. “And telephone calls. Well, things are easing up a bit now. We only average 1785 a day and the mail isn’t quite so heavy, just 1300 pieces a day. : “When I first topk over this job there were just two of us, my secretary and myself. Then came the restrictions on tires. The first day after that I worked from 7 in the morning until 11 at night, a phone in either hand. Lost 16 pounds in three weeks that way. “Most people don’t understand the full functioning of our office. They come in, look around, see the murals, rugs, chairs, marble

James D. Strickland , . . his desk and table, Masonic designs.

But only the desk

floor and wham , , , up they go in smoke. “I can’t particularly blame them. - They think their money paid for all this. Consequently, a lot of my time is taken up explaining that we merely rent from the Masonic order and the trimmings belong to the order. All I have for my own is a desk and table.”

2 # Ld

I's a Makeshift .

BUT IF ANYONE looked closely they would find that basically the set-up is very makeshift. There are 22 private offices. They are made of beaverboard partitions and not covered. The modern open-air taxicab. From the row of offices on the right as you enter” you can hear the taxpayer pleading for tires . + . that’s rationing. The second row houses the administration facilities. The third handles the price problems and the fourth is what all those charging illegal prices want to avoid . . . the legal department. In perfect privacy down either side of the two aisles work a

and table are his.

swarm of secretaries. To the rear

is a mass of peopled desks known as the stenographic pool. And here under one roof are handled the problems of your rationed articles: Tires, tubes, recapped tires, automobiles, sugar, typewriters, bicycles, fuel oil in‘cluding kerosene, gasoline, coffee and industrial rubber footwear.

H ” #

Lots of. Angles

“AND ANY OTHER rationed article will fall to our lot,” reminded Mr. Strickland, “There are lots of other angles. A book could be written on it. Just remember that the OPA was established to handle the control of prices and the rationing of commodities. Our national organization will spend about 90 cents for every person in the country this year. . “Most of the people who yelp about this fail to realize that without the organization inflation is a dire possibility. That would cost the taxpayer hundreds of dollars a year . .. not 90 cents.”

By Ernie Pyle OPA ‘Cramped’ Despite Its 14 000 Square Feet of Space

Beaverboard partitioned offices . , . administration facilities on ! the left, price facilities to the right.

At rows of desks down the aisles labor swarms of secretaries in “absolute privacy.” The fidor is marble.

Ship Output Outstrips

By CHARLES T. LUCEY

Times Special Writer IN JULY OF 1941 smart, husky

Adm. Howard L. Vickery of the United States Maritime Commission and Sir Owen Chalkley, commercial counselor of the British Embassy, sat down for lunch at a polished oak table in the grill of Washington's Carlton hotel. Sir Owen wanted to talk ships. Britain, he told the admiral, was hard up against it for merchant tonnage to fight the war, and in the minds of British officials was the idea that all possible help should be sought in the United States. A mission to this country was planned. What, asked Sir Owen, would be the attitude of this government? How many ships could the British hope to get? Admiral Vickery - was quite frank. Every bit of the country’s turbine and gear capacity was being pressed to the limit, he said, for this country’s own shipbuilding program, but if the British might be willing to take the oldertype reciprocating steam engine ships a good deal might be done. To do it best, the admiral said, they should stick to one design. And he went on to discuss places at which he. thought shipyards might be built to provide needed additional capacity.

» 2 * Sees Big Builders

TWO DAYS LATER the admiral lunched at the Shoreham hotel with Steve Bechtel and John McCone, officials of the California Shipbuilding Corp.; A. G. Roach of Consolidated Steel Corp. shipyards and Charles Shea, . another big construction man— all men of the six companies which had made history in building Boulder Dam, and associates of the fabulous Kaisers, Henry J. and son, Edgar. The British, Admiral Vickery told the builders, were thinking about - coming over here to get. some ships. He went on to explain the details as he knew them. Steve Bechtel’s eyes lighted up. His companions enthused. Why, that was just what they could do! Could they see the admiral later that afternoon? They could. The later meeting was held and discussions continued.

BITUMINOUS PRICES WILL BE ADJUSTED

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (U. P.). —Price Administrator Leon Hen-

.|derson said yesterday that OPA

would work out price adjustments necessary to cover jncréased cost of bituminous coal produced under a six-day week. The United Mine Workers of America recently agreed to permit miners to work six days a week instead of five as at present. Indorsing the proposed increased production program, Henderson said that “representatives of the committee ‘of bituminous mine operators, of the bituminous coal division of the department of labor, and OPA coal price executives are working together to solve the numerous and various problems ininvolved. “We hope to have specific information and cost data from the industry itself wits the least Pos= sible Seley.” )

The British came over the next month, and Admiral Vickery sent them packing off to the construction men. There were many conferences. Once the admiral and Mr. Kaiser, builder, at a meeting in New York decided the British needed a bit of prodding to get on faster, and prodding there was. Out of it.all came contracts for 60 ships—30 to the Todd-Bath yards at South Portland, Maine, and 30 to Kaiser yards in Cali-

fornia. 2 ” »

Spectacular Program

AND OUT OF THE plans born in those and following months came the biggest, fastest, most spectacular merchant shipbuilding program ever undertaken, which today gees ships coming off the line at} a rate shipbuilding men themselYes called utterly preposterous 18 months ago. A few weeks after the British contracts were signed President Roosevelt came back, from a southern fishing trip to spring his idea of lend-lease for supplying the allies and to outline plans for a vast emergency shipbuilding program. The original maritime commission program had been for: 50 merchant ships a year, 500 over a 10-year period. This was stepped up to 100 a year, then to 200. But all these figures went by the board now as Washington set its sights for goals undreamed of before. William S. Knudsen and Admiral Vickery sat down to discuss how fast expansion of shipyards could be pushed. Long-distance: telephone lines-to the shipbuilders burned, and one construction man after another flew into Washington to hear what was expected of him and to say what he could do. Much of it was brand new, but much of it had been planned, too, by Admiral Vickery, Admiral Emory S. Land and others in the maritime commission who had been looking a long way ahead. The British program had got the ball rolling, and it already had begun to gather momentum when the breathtaking United States ships-for-the-seven-seas undertaking began. ” ” ”

WHAT UNITED STATES shipyards have done is plain in a

Fondest Hopes in Brief 18 Months

simple reading of the figures. In world war I west coast shipyards, hammering out merchant vessels in the fastest possible.time, produced 381 vessels, from keel laying to complete outfitting, in an average time of 253 days each. The east coast yards turned out 339 vessels in an average of 325 days each.” The ‘gulf yards completed 28 vessels in an average time of 527 days. The peak wasn’t reached of course, until long after the war was over. Today the average time of building the 10,500-ton Liberty’ ships, larger on the average than those included in the world war figures, is 66 days. And the fabulous Mr. Kaiser laid the. keel for one in his California yards on one Sunday and turned it out completed the following Sunday. There are few performances to surpass it in all of America’s story of mechanical genius and mass production. There are many reasons back of this astounding speed, of course. But the most important, probably, are two — the nation went to the automobile industry to borrow its pre-fabrication and assembly line technique for building ships, and it went to its building construction men to borrow their technique in handling large masses of weight.

Pace Will Continue

IT HAS FUSED tHese with the know-how of its best shipbuilding brains to turn out 6,000,000 tons of merchant shipping in the first 10 months of this year. Another 1,000,000 tons slid from the ways im November, and this will be duplicated in December. America will build 16,000,000 tons of merchant shipping in 1943—right up to the seemingly impossible goal that had been set. It could be more than this probably, if the materials were avail=able. . When this program got under way good shipbuilding men believed that America might be proud if it could count on two ships per way per year—one every six months. Today it’s beginning to get them one ship per way per month—12 per year. The vast new shipyards that have been built are spread out

From Algiers to the Town

Of Bone-24 Hours Via Ford

by one of the jewels of the world—,

Co ht, 1942, by The Indianapolis Times pric d The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

BONE, Algeria, Dec. 1.—The road to this war—if you take the right road—carries you from the half-real civilization of Algiers right back into the heart of 10th-century Africa, through some of the fanciest mountain scenery in the world and then smack back to the north and the frowsy little port city of Bone, the nearest excuse for a city near the fighting line.

As we made it in a 1934 model}

Ford, after one false start, it took two of us 24 hours to cover 400 miles with time out for six hours

more than old shipyards used to be. They have required more area, in addition to the shipways proper, than was needed in other days because they are putting together whole sections of the ship before they ever move it into the ship structure itself. The old way was to lay the keel and build upward, riveting plate by plate, then coming in to install machinery and fitting as soon as the hull structure was ready.

” » ”

Sub-Assemblies

NOT SO NOW. Off somewhere in the yards men put together an entire deckhouse or forepeak in sub-assemblies and then two giant cranes which may be able to lift nearly 200 tons between them pick up these completed units and swing in over the hull to lower them down to be fitted. The whole engine with ‘all its appurtenances may be lifted in from another sub-assembly. That's how Henry Kaiser and some of the other shipbuilders have been able to dwarf all former shipbuilding records. One day, when the merchant ship program was just getting under way, Admiral Vickery took Henry Kaiser over to the Western Pipe & Steel Co. shipyard at San Francisco for a launching. The admiral pointed to piles of ship fittings, already assembled, around the shipyard: “You'll have no trouble with the hulls,” Admiral Vickery said. “It's the outfitting that might slow things down.”

VANNUYS TO PROBE ALASKAN CENSORS

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (U. P).— The senate judiciary committee has ordered an investigation of charges

‘by Governor Ernest Gruening: of Alaska that the office of censorship has violated the first war powers bill by illegally censoring cormamunications between the United States and Alaska. Testifying before a closed, thieehour session of the committee, Gruening . asserted that, although congress has not acted finally on a pending bill authorizing . blanket censorship of all mail between this country and Alaska, the office of consorship has for months been opening personal and business mail. Committee Chairman Frederick A. VanNuys (D. Ind.) said after the session that Byron Price, director

of censorship, would be called to

the magnificent mountain city of testify.

Constantine, the most beautiful city, from a distance, that we have ever seen or dreamed of seeing.

This trip to the battle, which may

decide the fate of tens of millions

of sleep in the little town of Setif.| wa

It was a trip into another world, |

largely arid and inhabited only by sleepy Arabs and wandering Bed and there

He said that Governor Gruening| °

charged that “the abuses had been going on for months” in Seattle, Wash.; that even though such ac-

congress or by executive order, the censorship office is maintaining a staf! of 400 persons in Seaitle to ex

tion has not been authorized by|

very piece of mail going “ 1 |

He pointed to the piles of ready ship fittings that. were vital to speed. ‘ “Surge piles!” Builder Kaiser exclaimed instantly, in builders’ language, He knew what the ade miral meant. Thaf, again, helps to explain what Mr. Kaiser has done. fabrication on some of the ships with which he has smashed all production records recently has gone as high as 60 per cent,

” 8 2

Aided by Welding

WELDING, BECOMING an ale most magic word, not alone in ships but in all war production, has béen a major time saver in turning out merchant vessels quicker than they've ever been turned out before. It saves time because one welder can do nearly twice the amount of ship-plate joining in a day that the old riveting crew could do. There were three' men in the riveting crew, and so that’s a manpawer saving on the order of almost 6 to 1.

And it saves steel because the!

back-up plates behind each seam where the large outer ship plates came together, needed in riveting, are eliminated in welding. That's a 15-20 per cent steel economy. Moreover, welding has aided compartmentation, which means greater ship safety. The records on this can’t be written until peace comes, but the story of the suryival of some of the welded ships after torpedo attacks is one of the most absorbing of the war, Amoeba-like, America’s biggest

shipbuilding companies divided -

into two or more shipbuilding or= ganizgtions when the pressure for ships and more ships came on. Newport News Shipbuilding & Drydock fathered a new shipyard at Wilmington, N. C.; Bethlehem organized a new yard at Baltimore, Alabama Shipbuilding &s

Drydock a new Mobile yard, and °

SO on, There's hardly a busier place in the world than in thesé very ship yards, It's a far cry from the country that built just two. dry cargo vessels and only a few tanke ers and passenger ships in all the 15 years from 1922 to 1937. Again, it's a case of the genius and cour= age of American industry that, when the pinch came, was able to do the impossible.

Pre~

FE TE va oo i ite

HOLD EVERYTHING