Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 11 December 1942 — Page 21

i t

Hoosier Vagdbond

wrrE THE AMERICAN FORCES IN ALGERIA ®y Wireless) —At the end of the first day of the “Battle ‘of Oran Sergt. Norman Harrington and Pvt. Ned Modica, army photographers, sprawled on the floor of a country schoolhouse near the little Algerian : town of Arzew. Other soldiers lay all around them. Both were dead tired. They had been on the.go all day without stopping, running up and back, ditching extra equipment and re-

turning later to get it. Of per-

sonal things: they carried only ‘tooth-brushes.. = - . Norman Harrington’s father is a preacher. He was gassed in the last war. Today he is living 4n retirement in Florida, a sick man

from the holocaust of 25 years

ago. The other war was an old thing by the time Norman grew to adult consciousness, and he heard little about it from his father. © Norman wasn’t much interested in wars, anyway. He was a civic leader back home in Easton, Md.—an odd thing for a boy of 16 just out of high school. He was chairman of the March of Dimes for the President's. birthday. He belonged to clubs, He made luncheon talks. He had an uncanny head for business, and he was wedded to photography.

Film Body of Sniper Who Missed Them

NORMAN AND NED, in their first 12 hectic hours on African soil, had filmed wounded Americans and wounded Frenchmen, filmed the actual capture of a seaplane base, and had. a weird experience filming their first wartime corpse. This was the body of a sniper who had shot at them and missed. They slept little that first night. * Snipers’ bullets pinged on the walls and thumped into the yard.

Ned Modica was used to nicer things in life. As a youth he went to the New York School of Fine and Applied Arts. Then he had two years of .study in Paris. © His studio was in fashionable Madison ave. - Now all his fine equipment is in storage, His wife *still teaches school and keeps their Long Island home going. At dawn the two photographers luckily found a jeep, and they drove forward to where the fighting for St. Cloud was going on. Eventually they left the jeep and worked their way up to the front line. Ned Modica found an American machine-gun crew, and ground away at them with his camera. It was good action stuff. Then they went on into Oran and filmed the dramatic welcome given the American troops by the French and Arab people. They found an mmo-

- dating RAF pilot to fly the film to London, and

called iti a day on their first venture into war.

‘We're Going to Be the Beach-Busters

TODAY THEY ARE bivoucaked 4 score of miles out in the country living in tiny shelter tents in an olive grove, waiting for the next campaign. That's where I found them. “When we get to Italy we can get us some wonderful things to eat,” says Modica. “At least we can ask for them, for I can speak Italian.” “You'll get to Italy and lots of other places,” says Harrington. “We're going to be the beach-busters of every landing and be in on every kill. You'll see.” “When it’s all over I'm going to get discharged in Paris and have my wife take a sabbatical leave,” says Modica. “We'll do these countries as tourists.” “Youll be in. China by the time it's all over,” says Harrington. “Well, I've always wanted to see China, s0 we might as well get discharged there,” says Modica. “If we live that long,” says- Harrington.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

HAROLD. ‘MULL, former secretary of .the public service commission, has been named secretary of the Indiana Bus Operators, Inc, succeeding Ralph Tully. « « « Lieut. (jg). Randall Shake has been home on leave, following completion of his officer’s training at Princeton U. He looks and feels fine— says he has gained 17 pounds since he left. . . . Now it’s Lieut. Jay O'Brien. . The former sports writer has just finished his air corps training at Miami and received his gold bars. He's been assigned to Randolph field. , . . Governor. Schricker - says a 10-cent war stamp is too much interest to pay on that dollar he borrowed from

Walter Greenough Wednesday to” ticular makes of cars? Well, Monarch Motors still

- pay for his lunch, The most interest he’ll pay is a 2-cent stamp. That's right, governor, let’s stamp out usury.

~The Grumble Dept.

' THERE WAS MUCH under-the-breath grumbling the other afternoon on the part of A-book holders walking on Pennsylvania st. just north of Washington. The reason: A sleek, black car, with a neat emblem, “U. 8S. Government, Official Car,” was parked at the curb, unattended and with the motor running. “Fine example—wasting gasoline,” muttered one glowering gent who probably had been denied a B-card. More grumbling about the Fall creek ordnance plant, out at 21st and Northwestern. One of our readers complains that the big battery of floodlights surrounding the place hasn't been turned off for a month or more—is “just 1éft ‘burning day and night? And Uncle Sam ‘pays the. bills, since it’s a cost-plus job. P. 8S. He just phoned hack to say the lights are off today. .. . Thus far there aren't any elaborately light“ed Christmas displays on downtown stores and other buildings, It’s the influence of the war. There's no

Washington

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11—A few months ago, when President Roosevelt was fumbling, we were hearing complaints. that he was too-soft, and that if Washington would only tell the country what was needed, people would respond glady. But Mr. Roosevelt finally got a grip on himself, and now that Washington is saying what is needed, some people are responding with anything except will~ingness. Railroad employees respond to the policy of holding down wage increases by asking a 30 per cent inerease—and they don’t offer in return to give up any of the feather bed practices that spread the work, oi The farm-bloc stooges in con- . gress nd to. the policy of checking inflationary prices by new threats. They are trying to hook price Ju on “essential ‘appropriation bills so. that the president cannot. veto them. /0.'1. O. steel workers have responded to the wage “stabilization policy by walking out of Bethlehem plate mills, causing a shutdown in production of plates for warships. Montgomery Ward, the mail-order house, is buying page newspaper advertising to carry on resistance

: to the war labor board and a presidential order, with * + a line that recalls the old Liberty Léague fight against

collective-bargainjng legislation.

The Censor Needs to Be Careful

THAT IS the way some are responding to the effort to carry on the hardest. war. we ‘have ever fought. That is the news that is reported at the same time Lieut. Gen. Henry H. Arnold is saying that the battle

1 Hitler throwing in his very best planes in.a: struggle. . «Which may lead into the all-out air battles that must .. come to clear. the Germans from the sky. . This is the time picked by selfish. groups, such as

My Day

NEW YORK CITY, Thursday.—Yesterday Mrs.

Martin Vogel came in to see me in Washington ‘and - told me the story of the work which her committee has done entertaining the service men in Washington.

i so {Theirs 1s a very personal service. It began with about

35 hostesses. Some of them live in big houses, some inssmall ones, ‘some of them want to keep open house and have 100 or more service men drop in on Saturday or Sunday during certain hours. » Others ‘offer to have one or two men for a meal or a week-end, Today she has over 1000 hostesses and the type of entertainment varies in just the same way. I think this type of personal contact is very valuable to a boy who is in Washington from some dis-

‘war.

shortage of clesiticits here, but even the Indianapolis

Power & Light Co. has an unlighted display. Just al

matter of good taste in wartime

Seed for Thought

NOW THAT WINTER really has set in, folks are| beginning to think about next summer's victory gar- : dens. Some of the seed companies have distributed ||

their tempting catalogs already, and others will be along soon. One of our correspondents reports eavesdropping on a couple of men in the seat behind him on a North side trolley. They were talking about tomatoes—how to grow them and how to wrap them in newspapers in the fall and let them ripen in the basement. Gosh, we can hardly wait for spring. . . .

Remember way back when the auto agencies used to

send out literature setting out the advantages of their

does. But, instead of sleek, shiny Buicks, they're advertising such things as bicycles, capeskin. surcoats, electric mixers, radios, hobby horses, doll house furni-

ture and plush animals,

No More Pencils

ONLY ONE MORE week of school, and then comes Christmas vacation. Bet the kids can hardly wait. It's the usual two weeks this year—Dec, 18 to Jan. 4. No such luck as the kids in the East have: There, it’s reported, some schools are closing for a whole month or more to save fuel. ,,. And here’s a tip to motorists: Watch your: driving. ‘Dent forget there'll be thou-sands'-of youngsters laying and one of them might dart ouyt-into the street in front of YOUR car. . .. John ‘Hubbard, head of the schools’ supply department, is critically ill at his home. , . . State house employees are “feeding the Kitty”—trying to raise $2000 for the annual state employees-Salvation Army Christmas party: for underprivileged children. , . . One of our correspondents wants to know if a motorist who abuses B-card or C-card privileges could be| called a sabotourist. You tell him!

By Raymond Clapper

those just named, to buck their own government and sock it in the rear. It is to be hoped that the censor

is not allowing this kind of news to reach our fighting |

forces. Those tank forces of ours, trying to hold the Germans until we get enough air support in Tunisia, would hardly be encouraged in their grim work to know that at home labor groups are demanding 30 per cent increases, and walking out; that farm lobbyists are continuing their fight with the threat of blocking war appropriations until they put their shakedown across. At the war department this week some of us talked with survivors of the 19th bombardment group, back from across the Pacific. They were at Clark Field, Manila, the morning the Japs came over a year ago. For months they fought a retreating action, taking up their planes without proper servicing, sometimes going up with only three engines working. They. couldn’t refuse to go up just because we didn’t have spare parts and ground crews on. hand to

By Ernie. Pyle :

V—Bombed

miles away. .

ting the Eyeties up to those That was not a new trick for the fascists. For two days during the Greek campaign, Mussolini anchored a hospital ship, painted with many Red Crosses, off Albania and ‘used it as his army headquarters. Mussolini, the Lion-Hearted. The puzzle out here in the, western desert of Egypt is.not to find out what makes these men go on fighting, The puzzle is how they go on existing. \ The sun crashes down like a sledge hammer. You feel the blood cascading through the cords in your neck. It is so hot that most British keep on their pith helmets in action. They prefer a : chance bullet page through the Cecil Brown head rather than a head constantly cooking under a steel helmet. "Indian troops are an exception. They take all the privations, and the heat, and the shortage of water and all the aggravating discomforts of the desert as a matter of course. They are solemn and disciplined on duty—Ilaughing and gay when off duty. The make excellent soldiers. ” ” »

Heat Is Stifling

TANKS BECOME too hot to the touch. Fingers burn on the rifle barrel, your skin peels off on it and. there's that odor of burning flesh. Meh inside a tank can lose ten pounds in one day's operations. Pilots coming out. of the cool skies wobble with faintness from the stifling ground heat. The Khamsin, the hot, dry wind of the Egyptian deserts, leaves a man gasping for life. Its dryness shrinks and cracks open the lips, chaps faces. Driven grains of sand

PLANES TO HAUL FREIGHT LOADS

Post-War Competition Is

Seen With Railroads; Rate to Be Low.

By Science Service CHICAGO, Dec. 11.—After the war, airplanes will be able to compete on a price basis with railroads in carrying less-than-carload-lot freight as well as express and mail, J. V. Sheehan, Lockheed Aircraft Corp. engineer, ‘predicted to the Society of Automotive Engineers here. Large and more efficient cargo planes would allow flying the 18

put their planes into proper condition. They had to|million tons of freight of this® sort

80 up anyway. They not only went up but they shot down, over weeks of most dangerous fighting, some 300 Jap planes. They have been in total war and they know

that it takes everything they have and everything we have at home to give them.

You Can’t Have Everything You Want

SOME PEOPLE seem to think that we ican go on with this war and still give everybody everything. he wants. President Roosevelt, McNutt, Wickard, Ickes, Henderson, WPB, the WLB and ‘others who- have the job of backing up the armed forces can’t make it their

aut job Jo keep everybody happy at home. : They have : es which are extremely difficult and unpleasant. ~ for air superiority in Africa is nip and tuck, with. y ph

: Pilots of the 19th bombardment. group ‘had to .wark with what they had. ' They made the best-of it. They -knew you can’t have everything you want in

: We can’t have, everything. ‘we want ‘at home either, ; i

By Eleanor Roosevelt

this may be his first veal touch of something homelike ‘in months.

On the other hand, if the soldier happens. to: find :

himself one of many guests in a big house,. with, ‘per-

haps, some well-known people there whom he has! par

read about in the newspapers, he has a different sort

each year, although this is about 3000 times the total air express carried on all U, S. airlines last year. Mr. Sheehan estimated that 620 planes each of 16 tons payload, cruising 250 miles per hour 10 hours each day, would move less-than-car-load-lot freight, which is only 1% per cent of all freight carried now by the railroads. %_- Costs Now Disregarded Large amounts of war cargo are now being carried within the country and’ -Over oceans necessarily with “an utter. disregard of costs” since gelting it there is all that matters. In the post-war era Mr, Sheehan expects combination pas-senger-cargo planes to be used first, with all-cargo planes taking up the|~ burden later. ‘Largest of the airplane designs

Zusem aoa, Sheehan's studies has

and.- a take-off gross ght of 100,000 pounds. This plane -cdrry a ton a mile for about. 10 cents.

8000 ho

of enjoyment. It’s stimulating, something to write|tix

home about. These experiences may mean a great deal ‘to a

boy who has a day or two of leave in Washington| ~ si

far away from his home and his own people. Mrs.

Vogel tells me that her committee makes an effort!

to send boys interested in music to places where they are apt to find other musical people, lawyers meet lawyers, etc. (Although this is a highly personalized type of work, it has its own place and is of real value to the community. . At 9:15 yesterday morning, Mr. Aubrey Williams brought his regional NYA directors in for a brief visit

SVS 0 000 7 itu fo vel chem of Giings Whe 1

heard of in England that might have :30, I went to

that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel’s retreating axis armies: had been forced to abandon Bn total of 513 aircraft in the flight from El Alamein to El Agheila.

0. E. 8. GROUP TO MEET Monument Chapter No. $49,°0. E.

S, will - hold ‘a trial and stated] | meeting the

Out of Bed

THAT MORNING, an Italian Savoia-Marchetti bomber painted white and with a red cross on it roared down the | § main road into Egypt almost as far as Sidi Barrani, 50

“Did you fire on it?” I asked the colonel. * “Oh, no, can’t do that. Red Cross, you know.” “Yes, but that was not a Red: Cross plane if it came over this territory. It was on reconnaissance, wasn’t it?” “Yes, of course, but we can’t fire on a plane marked with the Red Cross.” He sighed.

“I guess Jerry is puttricks.”

‘| some advice to the U.S. Pacific ‘|fleet at ‘the request of Admiral

radar and lookouts.. All of these

Most Animals Don't Fight, Darwin Supporter Reveals ms

fine

burn eyes with irritation and rim {them with redness. The lids peel back, granular with soreness. : The sand breaks open the skin and broken skin is as dangerous in the desert as it is in the jungle. Sand interferes with healing. Sand gangrene sets in, making ugly, pus-edged sores. Sand fleas break open the skin, too. The warning is: “Don’t scratch sand flea bites,” but human nature and reaction being what they are every flea can have the satisfaction of knowing his bite gets scratched. Scorpions sting with the tail, causing arms and legs to swell three or four times in size. A scorpion-bitten soldier:is assured 24 hours in sick bay at least. Scorpions prefer to . cuddle in your blanket inthe night; then they sting you in the morning. The wind gives voice to the desert. It screams its forlorn wail, hop-

ping from dune to dune.

” 8

Incident at Bugbug

ONE NIGHT not far from Buqbuq when we lay in our cots within sound. of the Mediterranean, crunching on. the beach, I called across to Johnson, the batman: “Johnson, what would you do if 50 Germans came over that rise?” “I would have a go at them, sir,” Johnson said. . “How long do you think we three could stand them off?” Johnson called back without a moment’s hesitation. “Why,” he said incredulously, . “we would stand them off until we got all 50 of them.” Bugbuq is a sun-scorched bit of nothingness, a hole in the ground, where makes it a big red important “eircle on’ the map.’ The tank for “water is. there, a small wooden shack for a guard to cool his

steaming head, and a mule. The

mule stands for hours in the sun, immovable, immutable and imperishable, waiting for the return of its Italian masters. I spoke to it in Italian. Its ears flapped ecstatically, but the beast paid no attention to my suggestions. You. carry your own bedding

| BAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 11 (U. P..~—Davy Jones, : that undersea spirit who has a locker, has offered

Chestér W. Nimitz, the’ navy said today. His advice went in the form of an official bulletin from Nimitz to the fleet. It said: “On this occasion of your nth crossing of the equator, I want to wish all hands a round trip. To achieve a successful round trip may not be too easy. From what I read in the papers, I believe the area where you are going is lousy with Jab submarines and small torpedo boats, in addition to a battelship or cruiser here and there, . “These little fellows have done and. will do their dirty work at night. The only offense sgainst them is prayer and you. “The big ships will do the praying which leaves you to do the work. To sink them you must find them in the dark. You have sound,

drinking water 3

By Science Service WASHINGTON, Dec. 11. — The tooth-and-claw “law- of the jungle,” often cited on the authority of Darwin by advocates of ruthlessness, is no part of Darwin’s authentic teaching, declares Prof. R. E. Coker of the University of North Carolina, in the new. issue of the Scientilic Monthly, published here. Darwin never used the phrase “survival of the fittest,” he continues; it was an

tlinvention of Herbert Spencer, con-. porary’

. Purthef interpretations were undertaken elsewhere, - especially - in Germany, which resulted in definite distortion of Darwin’s meaning. Al-

gation of an imaginary “law of the jungle” were non-zoologists who had never seen a jungle. - Actually, Prof. ‘Coker points out, the imagined “jungle” type of fightamong animals is one of the rarest of occurrences in nature, Most animals never fight at all. Even such struggles as the combats of

rival stags at mating time are jousts

ways the most glib in the promul-|-

in the desert. We set up our cots, and I had a sleeping bag besides. About 8:30 we were in our beds. The wind was blowing strong from the Mediterranean, It was a hot wind. There was .a very strong dew. If you kept your head up out of the covers it. was like sleeping in the rain. If you put your head underneath the covers it was too hot.” I preferred to lie on my back with the dew coming down like rain and watch the billions of stars in the sky. The first bomb shakes everything with maniacal fury. It wakeng me, The second bomb speeds up. he aaa ‘In 30 sec-

or pgm doen Nn ding Inte s horas

bathed slit trench. It.is a rough, 10-foot slash in the sand, 12 inches wide and 4 feet deep. The driving desert winds have rounded the edges. “Don’t think they're after us, sir,” the figure in the trench says. “Those first" few must have been a mistake.” “Oh, it's you, Johnson. They

Davy Jones Offers Advice To U. S. Fleet—Keep Lookout

can be just as good or just as bad as you make them.. “You can’t make & soundman listen, or a lookout look, or a radarman radiate ; information by getting tough or putting him on the ‘report. You've ‘got to instill morale—an eager désire to do ‘the job not well but perfectly. “To this end, the captain and officers must camp on their trail— explain, discuss, persuade, cajole, practice, tést, teach, check and double check, “Tell them about the little orphans back home who’ll never say daddy, if he doesn’t keep on his toes. If you haven’t- any youngsters, tell them about mine—and those who'll never be born fof lack of a father. . . . “These people should :be drilled, trained, exercised and urged, 24 hours a day. You have enough officers on watch to do it and it may prevent your wife from squandering your insurance on gew-gaws or bric-a-brac, - ; DAVY JONES. “By direction of C. W. Nimitz.”

Similarly, exploitative conquest is unknown ‘in the animal world. The nearést’ ha known to it is the slave-raiding tendency among certain species of ants. Darwin’s real teaching about: the origin of the human race’ itself stands in direct opposition to the “jungle-law” notion. Prof. Coker cites two passages from the ‘Descent| of Man. In one Darwin points out that if man had: been :derived from an animal possessing’ great size,

slanting ora They are two: fingers probing into a rubber pillow, ‘We hunch over in the tre Fragmentation bombs may posted out of the sky with our

nanies on them, and besides, nore! %

.ack-ack flying about. My head is pressed against the back of tha narrow trench and a bomb b

{| ° sends a small landslide of sand

“down my neck. It is an uhcahny

' feeling as it slithers down, an

seem to be dropping. about two miles away, don’t they?” “Yes, sir. About that. Jerry’s after those supply dumps.” wx

The Ground Trembles

WITHOUT PAUSE, the antiaircraft guns bark and grunt from a dozen different directions, spewing a curtain of lead that comes down in a haphazzard shower over the soft gray desert all around us. Four long, bright, bluish threads are sewing slow cross-stitches across the starclogged sky of Egypt. The ack-ack batteries along the Mediterranean seem especially ac~ tive, angrier than the others. Evi« dently, the. Nazi bombers are making their’ runs over the target from the sea approach. The crash of the bombs sound farther away, but the ground still seems to be trembling like an immeénse platter of" " deflo, quite agitated. : Explosions come in regular sequence. Four or five almost to-

SPONGE RUBBER

FOUND IN FOAM!

Kettle Boils Over - and Chemists See New Source of War Materials.

CHICAGO, Dec. 11 (wv. P.) —Because a kettle ‘boiled over accidentally, a surgical-dressings manufacturing . company , announced yesterday, the nation has a new substitute for sponge rubber that can be produced from waste farm products . and used in tanks,’ airplanes and other war equipment. Two chemists in the laboratories of Bauer and Black were seeking a substitute for rubber as an adhesive in adhesive tape. They combined a resin developed by the northern] regional laboratory of the U. 8S. agricultural department. When they combined: the resin} with an acid and attempted to vulcanize it in a kettle with other chemicals, the contents foamed up and ran over.

Foam Controlled

They later succeeded in controliing the foam and-the new rubber substitute was the result, the“ com‘disclosed ‘today. ‘ "R. ‘W. Whidden, company president, said he believed the new prodiet, would do much to relieve the drain on the nation’s dwindling rubber stock pile. | Whidden said‘the néw sponge Yubber substitute, as yet. unnamed, can be used to line tanks, pad airplane cockpits, pad:helmets, fill seat cushions, make -de-icers for’ airplane ‘wings and mattresses for hospitals.

" |be used by any company manufacturing for the war effort free of

sanction | royalties. Peacetime use in the post-

1 war era was reserved by Bauer and Black.

"The discoverers of the new product, Dr. Marguerite Naps, 29, redhaired chemist . from = Milwaukee,

Wis, and Dr..H. M. Strong, said) | the resin was derived from soybean

now there ii is, very uncomforte able. i Evidently Johnson has a dialio bs experience because he grunts, Eo scrooges around and kneels di { in «the bottom of the - trench, Knees in the sand, rump on heels we face each other and await our: destiny—or the end of this i racket, so that we can go back. te Lao sleep. 555 “There must be a mess of Jere ries over tonight, Johnson.” » ge “Seems so, sir.” Ch Throughout all of the day and at dinner, Johnson was an ordis nary husky soldier, {not very dise tinguishable from %¥housands of = others except for his ham-1ike § - ~hands and curiously shy smile. st. he "lently énd $agerly he went aboud his job of driving the captain and myself in the front area near the Libyan frontier. Now he may be my companion in death. If a bomb hits the edge of this trench, this will be our common grave, :

Next—As bombs fall nearby, & British soldier sighs for real ate’ tion; and a lesson in booby ec.

Traveling Kit Fulfills Name

' BOISE, Ida. Dec. 11 (U. P)i~ | Sgt. William M. Edwards was aboard a ship in the Pacifi when the Japs struck at, Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941. The ship turned back and Edwards ree turned to Gowen field, ‘Boise, to become an instructor. . Today he received a Christmas present mailed by his wife in November, 1941, when she thought he was overseas. The present went from - Salt Lake City to Francisco, the Philippine China, back to the Philippines, te India, Hawaii, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, New York, and: finally arrived at Boise. It was a traveling kit,

HOOSIER ENGINEER HURT IN TRAIN CRASH.

- CAMDEN, O., Dec. 11 (U. P.).Five persons, including _ three soldiers, were slightly injured yese | terday when two Pennsylvania raile road trains collided on a siding neag Camden, Officials said that a southe bound passenger train entered ‘the siding at a slow speed and: struc]

freight train: headon. *

The injured included peter. 1 Aleshi, 41, Kansas City, Mo ert Lempke, 22, Hancrenek, 1 Harry M. Demoss, 21, Blanchard | all soldiers, and two en : liam Reese of ‘Hamilton, O., Ek Jonas Donson, Richmond, Ind. All ‘were taken to Ft. H hospital. at Hamilton, O., physicians said their juries ¢ sisted of cuts and bruises. i

HOLD EVERYTHING

0 ¥ ’ 4 od

Homa vid