Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 February 1943 — Page 14
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 24, 1943
_ SECOND ‘SECTION
¢ ‘Hoosier Vagabond
. THE TUNISIAN FRONT (By Wireless). —Little eameos of war: ;
Most of the preliminary battles between axis and American troops in Tunisia during the past two months have been for pessession of mountain passes leading to eastern Tunisia. one of these battles our men had worked their way up to the mouth of a pass on one side and the Italians had done the same on the other side. There they lay, well dug in, : not more than 200 yards apart. They were separated by previously laid mine fields over which
neither dared to pass. So they"
just lay there, each side waiting for some action from the other. - The .Italians began sending over notes to the Americans. I've heard many stories of such happenings in the last war, but it is rare in this one. The Italians would send over a note telling the American they were badly outnumbered and didn’t have a chance and had better surrender: right now. The Americans would send back a note saying, “Go to hell you lousy spaghetti-eaters. We'll tear your ears off before this is over.” : The reason I'm telling this story is that these notes, with perfect incongruousness, were carried back end forth through’'the mine fields by a small Arab boy who happened to wander past and took on the job for 8 few francs!
mn a Farmyard
\L the United Press and I stayed all night 8t a general’s forward command post a few miles back from a pass where fighting was going on.
We were in |a big farmyard. Trucks and jeeps were
- ‘Adventure Don Coe of
TWO BUDDIES who joined the navy a year ago but hadn't seen each other since they left the Great Lakes had a brief reunion recently. They were Joe Wuest, cook 2/c aboard a subchaser, and George W. Harmon Jr., machinist’s mate 2/c. Harmon is on an - island somewhere in the southwest Pacific. By accident, Wuest learned where Harmon was located and one day when the subchaser was near the island, he confided in his commander. that - his buddy was on the island. The commander ordéred the boat to put ashore and gave the two buddies a couple hours’ visit. . . And speaking of reunions, Ensign J. S. Davis, formerly Chief Yeoman Davis of the local recruiting station, writes from Casablanca y ran into his brother there. They same time and were there two ound the corner from each other but didn’t discover it until the folks at home tipped them off. . . . Among| the selective service volunteers listed in a navy publicity release last week was “Robert Albert Herman William Metcalfe, 1829 S. East st.”
Eat-Our-Words Dept.
AN ITEM in| this column yesterday-quoted one ot our readers as saying the 1943 license tab on a state police car was placed so you couldn't tell whether the 1942 number was 205 or 295. The paper hadn’t been on the street much more than an hour until State Policeman Jim Hiner, a husky individual who hap-
pens to drive for the-governor, ‘dropped into the: office -
/; with blood in his eye. Fortunately we were at lunch. One of our agents went out and looked at the license and reports we ought to eat our words as the number 805 is pretty distinct. So here goes. . . . Edward Klinge, The Times’ artist, got a phone call Monday pight from his| brother-in-law, Pfc. John Emrich, U. S. marine paratrooper, out at Camp Gillespie, San Diego. “See if you can buy me a 45-caliber auto-
WASHINGTON, Feb. 24—Our national characteronfidence, and President Roosevelt used - the occasion of | George Washington's anniversary to “fry to puncture [it. Because our [production is high, and because the "| axis is not making gains at the - moment, and because Russia is driving the Germans back, we are tempted to be too rosy in our * outlook. The drastic food rationing that “is about to begin, and the program for drafting 12,000 men a day into'the armed forces and to bring them to a total of nearly 11,000,000 by the end of the year, are evidence of the effort the government’ expects. to make, Military judgment here—which
many this year but next year, with pe dealt with, President Roosevelt reamina George Washington had at Valley triows that similar stamina will be neces-
gary for us. : poe Siill Search for Miracle 3 NO suggestion of easing or appeasement or of hurting for a way out. a Agricultural forces in congress have put on intense pressure to reduce the projected size of the army but President Roosevelt makes it ‘clear that he as com-mander-in-chief will stick to the scheduled figure for this year.
In .
By Ernie Pyle
parked around the edge of the lot under trees. We picked out a vacant spot and threw our bedrolls on the ground, We-rolled a jeep in front of us to keep ‘trucks from running over us in the blackout while we slept. : : There is something good about sleeping outdoors.
For a long time we lay back, rolled tight in our
blankets, looking straight up into the sky. There were millions of stars, and every few seconds one of- them would fall. A couple of times stars went shooting horizontally across the heavens. The sky at night.is a majestic and inspiring thing, yet we have to come to far-off
Africa and sleep on the ground in order to see and
feel it. ; . ; After a while we went to sleep, The next thing I knew. a gruff voice was saying: “what the hell is this jeep doing out here in the open like this?”
‘We Learned Our Lesson’
I PEEKED one eye out and saw that it was Just daylight and that the voice was no less than: that of the general, out on an early morning inspection prowl. Whereupon I shut my eyes quickly and let Don handle the situation. The general made a few more choice remarks before Don got his sleepy head out of the plankts. Then all of a sudden the general said: “Oh, I'm sorry. I didn’t realize it was you. Forget it. Everything's all right.” : I lay very still, pretending to. be asleep, and chuckling to myself. Later in the day the general apologized to me too, but I was sorry he did and told him so, for we had done something very thoughtless which endangered other people as well as ourselves. And the fact that we were correspondents instead of soldiers didn’t excuse us. But at least we learned our lesson. leave jeeps showing after daylight again.
We won't
matic,” he requested. He said there seemed to be a shortage of side arms—three of the 15 in his troop didn’t have automatics. And he was afraid he might be ordered cverseas before he got one, Klinge says he, too, is having trouble finding one.
Coincidence Dept.
A COINCIDENCE to end all coincidences: Mrs. Chloe Karns, 3720 N. Pennsylvania, accidentally left on the counter of the Merchants bank recently a holder containing her own sugar rationing book and those of her daughters, Martha Karns and Mrs, Martine Morrison. A few minutes later, a young weman walked into the bank, saw the ration book holder and, without looking ‘inside, turned it in to an official of the bank, By a strange coincidence, the finder was Martha Karns, who had no idea her own ration book was in the holder. When she got back to her office, at Mouldings, Inc., she received a phone call from the bank telling her to come and get her ration book and those of her mother and sister. Before she got there, though, her mother discovered her loss, went to the bank and obtained the books. It's strange—but ’struth.
Around the Town
THE EMPLOYEES of the Indianapolis Press club think they have solved two problems: (1) the meat shortage and (2) the pigeon problem, It seems a pigeon made the mistake of fluttering into the club’s kitchen through an open window. A serious, in fact, fatal, accident befell it. Then Cook Marie Houska whisked its feathers off and boiled it, serving it to the help with dumplings. The reception was only lukewarm: : . , The arrival of rationing has cut into. the profits of several small boys who had been doing a landoffice business hauling groceries home for patrons of a grocery store near 34th and Illinois, . . . Some reader still is sending us anonymous chain letters— the Good Luck of London—and urging us to pass it and four copies along. We forgot to send on previous copies, and we've had nothing but good luck. So
there,
By Raymond Clapper
‘there will be more. He cautions us against thinking that the Russian successes mean victory is just around the corner. ; Some are still searching for a’ miracle that will bring victory the easy way. Mr. Roosevelt holds out no such hope. He says we have no Joshua to bring down the walls of Jericho by a trumpet blast. “It is necessary that President Roosevelt should emphasize the prospect of & long, stubborn war. The nation is overconfident, That is why people ‘find it difficult to understand the sudden change that is taking place as; this land of plenty becomes overnight a land of scarcity.
Leadership Will Be Needed
FROM NOW ON the housewife will find ita daily struggle to get her groceries, regardless of how much money ‘she has. Already the need for such drastic restrictions is being questioned. -It will be questioned so long as the country is overconfident as to the war. All of Mr. Roosevelt's leadership will be needed to convince people that there just isn’t enough food to meet the needs that exist. We are in a curious stage now—overconfident about the war and underconfident about the peace, We think it will be a short, easy victory and that nothing will come of the victory except another war, That is a growing feeling and a dangerous one. The policy of drift and delay almost lost the Revolutionary war for us. It almost left us a divided chain of colonies to be later picked off by predatory European powers. There was a parallel in Europe after the last war. Failure of the nations to unite after this war will invite the same attacks again, It is undersiandable
Will Heighten
(Third of a Series)
By DAVID DIETZ Scripps-Howard Science Editor
BY THE END of this year 25,000 miles of fluorescent electric lighting will be in use in the United States, enough miles of the new tubular lamps to make a glowing girdle of artificial daylight around the earth’s
equator. Eighteen thousand miles of it are in use at the moment, according to Ward Harrison, director of engineering of the General Electric Co.’s lamp department at Nela Park, Cleveland. Translated into terms of individual lamps, this means that
lamps are in use at the moment and that the electrical indus- , try will produce ‘an additional . 33,000,000 lamps
during the pres-
Mr. Diets 45rd of which will represent new installations and two-thirds replacement of worn-out lafnps. Since the great majority of fluorescent lamps have gone into plants handling war orders, the ‘workers in the nation’s defense factories know more about these lamps than does the general pubJc. They know the advantages of working under a light that rivals daylight and eliminates glare, J ‘But what even they do not perhaps always appreciate is that fluorescent lighting has made it possible in many instances to triple their lighting intensity without the addition of any new g, an important item becase of the war demands for copper. » » »
3 Times the Lighting
THIS MEANS that for the same consumption of current—and the same outlay of money in electric light bills—you can get three
cent lighting as you can from the familiar incandescent lamp. Today you cannot obtain equipment for fluorescent lighting without a government priority order and that means that it is all going into war plant installations, But on a visit to the Nela Park Lighting institute, I saw what is in store for the average householder once the war is over. Most interesting exhibit at the Institute is a model home in which expert architects ‘and decorators have shown how the new lamps
No ‘fluorescent. lamps are in sight in ‘the living room but from cleverly ' concealed installations over ‘windows comes a soft, warm glow.’ “Touch another switch and it changes to daylight. intensitysuitable- for reading or studying.
room windows give the impression ‘of 'a “flood- of . moonlight pouring ‘into the room... Women will be particularly interested in the lights over the bedroom mirrors
light. Eee. BUT EXECUTIVES of General Electric refuse to regard the present ‘fluorescent ‘lamps as the last
soft, even
New Lighting -
~ Joys of Living
about 30,000,000
> ent year, one- .
times as much light from fluores-
can be used to greatest advantage.
. Lights hidden behind the dining
which suffuse the mirrors with a
Above: Night scene of an airplane factory. Fluorescent lamps on the ceiling rival the sun. Below: Dr. Irving Langmuir (left), Nobel Prize winner who perfected the gas filled lamp. Dr. W. D. Coolidge (center), director of the General Electric laboratories. ‘And (right) a - scene in the model house at Nela Park lighting institute, showing novel use of fluorescent lighting over a mirror.
word in lighting and so Nela Park has a staff of research experts at work this moment on how to improve them. Other research workers are tackling the problem at the General Electric laboratories in Schenectady. In a recent visit to Schenectady, I stood in the laboratory of Dr. Gordon Fonda and watched him and his assistants working on methods to improve the lamps and lower the cost of operation. pe Better light for less money h been the guiding principle of the General Electric laboratories from their very beginning. The story is one of the ‘most dramatic proofs of how industrial research has paid far greater dividends to the nation at large than it has to the companies: who risked their capital to carry it on. Many people think .that the story of the. electric light can be summed up by saying that Edison invented it. The story would be far different from what it is to--day: but‘ for the General Electric ‘laboratories.’ re
Edison invented the-incandes-"
cent’ light: in 1879" and’ by "1900 . many -pedple took ‘it for. granted =
that: the=electric ‘light had: ‘been
brought to ' is highest state “of
perfection. - But among those who _ though’ otherwise<was Charles’ P. Steinmetz, the, “electrical wizard” of the then newly formed General Electric Ca., a company brought into - existence by -the ‘merger: of + four companies, including Egison’s
own company. . , . . One day in 1900 Steinmetz and A, G. Davis, manager. of the G. E. patent department, -called on E. W. Rice Jr., then technical. director of the: company. The, two had a plan’ for a scientific labora-~ ‘tory.. "It was ‘a new.idea, for.at that time scientific research. was regardéd’as a job for colleges ‘and
_ universities only. ‘
BUT RICE agreed with them and Dr. William R. Whitney, a young professor of chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was engaged as director of the laboratory. After Whitney arrived in Schenectady, the prob.lem ardse as to where Whitney was to work and so his laboratory was put in the barn behind Steinmetz’s house, where that great genius ‘was carrying on his researches. The other day, after a visit to the two huge buildings that house ‘the laboratories in Schenectady today, I lunched with Dr. Whit-
. ney, now 75, and listened to his
_ story of the early days. ~ The old Edison lamps had carbon filaments and readers old enough to remember them will recall how they used to turn black. That was the first problem investigated by Dr. Whitney. He developed an improved lamp with a carbon filament treated in a high temperature furnace. These went on the market in 1905 under the name of “Gem” lamps. The: word- stood for the initials. of
“General Electric metallized.” ©
‘The, Gem lamps were. 25 per. cent more: efficient than. the old
lamps.” ‘General ' Electric “had
started.on the path of. furnishing better light for less money. . Meanwhile another bright young. instruetor: from ‘M. I.-T., who ‘had become * Whitney’s : right :~ hand man, Dr..W. D. Coolidge, took up the problem of betterlighting.
8 8 8!
Filaments Easily Broken, . EXPERIMENTS had-been. started with tungsten filaments’in place of the old. carbon filaments. But tungsten filament lamps were . brittle. . Oldtimers will remémber that the; slightest jar broke ‘the. filaménts and’ that the lamps, could’ not be, used : on. streetcars
SE ——
because the vibrations broke the filaments. ; Dr, Coolidge tackled the problem of tungsten and devised a means ' by which tungsten wire could be: made that was strong enough to resist vibration. But ‘tungsten bulbs blackened in time just as did the-old' carbon lamps and this problem was attacked by a third young man who had ‘ joined the laboratory,’ Dr. Irving Langmuir. He found that this, could, be prevented by filling the bulb with an inert gas and so the present-day gas-filled tungsten filament lamp came into existence. Today, General Electric is an . extrémely successful corporation "and Whitney, Coolidge, and Lang- . muir ‘dre thiee of the, world’s best .known i scigntists. . But let -us see what “ their’ work has. meant in ‘terins of, dollars and cents: to the American public. Hereiis a summary, of some statistics’ furnished + by- Dr, Coolidge who, is now, director of the’G! E: laboratories: . ~The» United: States_public’ spent : mgre. than $130,000,000, for electric bulbs in 1942. . If it "had. been _ forced to'buy*Edison carbon lamps
... of: the year.1900 at 1900: prices, it
"would have cost $900,000,000-more to ‘provide the ,same amount. of light. % i : 1 a > i smal B® » }
; Save'3 Million a Day
IN OTHER words, research - saved the Americun public:a lamp .
bill, of" $3,000,
for every’ working day ‘in 1942, I Sh
But that is only part of the story. Because of the inefficiency of the carbon lamps and the greater number necessary, the public's bill for electric current would have jumped $3,000,000,000 in 1942 or an increase of $10,000,000 for very working day of the year. “This research on lambs has given the public an annual saving
- of about $3,900,000,000, more than
the cost of all the private automobiles sold in 1938,” Dr. Coolidge says. | ' Improvements in the electric lamp, however, are only one of the many things that have come out of these magnificent laboratories in Schenectady. Among its important’ contributions have been the Coolidge ° X-ray tube, likewise the work of
Dr. Coolidge.
If you have had occasion to get a tooth X-rayed by your dentist or have needed the services of an X-ray specialist for more serious. reasons, you are familiar with the Coolidge X-ray tube. It is the one in general use today.
ra ” ”» Guesswork Ended IT NOT ONLY represents a more efficient tube but made it possible for the X-ray specialist to. control accurately the amount and kind of X-rays emitted. Dr. Coolidge took guesswork out of X-ray procedures. The G. E. laboratory has continued to work with X-ray tubes, building bigger and bigger. ones. One of its most recent accomplish-
ments was 3 1,400-000 volt. X-ray
machine for the U, 8, bureau of standards, Dr. Langmuir turned his attention to the radio tube as well as the electric lamp and made many improvements in it. Radio broadcastings as it-is known today was made - possible . by Langmuir’s “pliotron,” the first high-vacuum, high-voltage radio tube. ; At the moment much of the work iin the .G.E. laboratories is secret, work for Uncle Sam." Thus history repeats ‘itself.’ ! In’ world war I, - Whitney, ' Langmuir and “Coolidge undertopk .to.' work’ on marine detection apparatus for ise. ‘Later ‘a’ méniber of ‘the naval . commission = told “You accomplished ‘more in onths than we did in. Engn three years.” © ~~ ay many of the top-flight
But with Dr. Whitiiey they look the new wonders that research will se in the years to come.
av eT
AVOID BLIND BELIEF
consequences,”
LECTURER URGES
.'%Until our spiritual understanding ‘advances to the point where we can separate fact from fable by the pure process of reasoning, we may accept whatever lying argument happens to present itself and thereby suffer the Louise ' Knight Wheatley Cook said here last night.
They Couldn't Do That to Dominic
NEW YORK, Feb. 2¢ (U, P.).— Dominic de Cicco, 25, walked into a police station and complained three . safecrackers had cheated him in a $3000 warehouse burglary 10 days ago. They promised to split the loot with him, the nightwatchman, if he would let them tie him up. : Cicco said he had never seen them again, and wanted to help
CHUNGKING SIRENS CHUNGKING, Feb. 24' (U. P.)— Eighteen Japanese bombers attacked Liangshan, in east Szechwan province, today and Chungking had a 70-minute air raid alarm, a Chinese communique said, * This was the second successive day that air raid sirens have sounded in Chungkirg. Yesterday, the city had" a’ two-hour alarm, while 16
a Jor ye RAF's New Vice Marshal-Only 37 TM i ¥, , CAIRO, Feb. 24 (U. P). —Alr ‘Vice Marshal H. Broadhurst has been named successor to Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham as allied - air’ force commander in the western desert, it was announced today. : Coningham-is now in charge of British first and eighth army air
INITURE PATTERNS
dered a two-thirds cut in the number of wood furniture patterns, ef-
after March 15, also ordered limitations » use of iron and steel for acture of wood - furniture, to 'a savings of approximately tons of ‘iron and’ steel annu-
She spoke at the Murat theater under the auspices of the Second Church of Christ, Scientist. “Tv believe in something is all {very well,” she said, “but when one : : merely believes in something, with- : : out really. knowing ‘why, he is build-
oo gn ing on a foundation which at any By Eleanor Roosevelt moment ms
We have had setbacks in Tunisia, but Mr. Roose- that the president should deplore cynicism. But the velt has not felt called upon to try to explain them greater regret is that the leaders of the allied powers away. There is no demand from the public that he have not yet been able to bring themselves together : into some understanding that will make the united as are expected. The president warns us nations a reality instead of a phrase.
operations under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Tunisian command. | At: 37, Broadhurst is the youngest air vice raarshal in R. A, F. history. He is ‘a veteran fighter pilot -of the battle of Britain and the Dieppe ;raid. While ‘in the United States in 1941 he attended air corps maneuvers and flew the first P-37 Thunderbolt fighter ever built. oes ;
900 TANKS SENT TO | SOVIET. BY :CANADA
OTTAWA, Feb. 24 (U. P.).—Canada has sent Russia mere than 900} | tanks, 2000 universal carriers, 22,-| 000,000 rounds of ammunition, fcod, wheat, clothing, strategic material} and - metals, Prime - Minister ‘Mackenzie King told the house of commons yesterday on the occasion of} I" the 25th anniversary of ‘the red| | against: German propaganda which is trying to split the united nations| by. raising . the, “bolshevik- bogey,”| and expressed the belief that Can-
catch them. A magistrate ordered him held in $2500 bail. o
JAP BOMBERS RAID U. S. BASE IN ASSAM
NEW DELHI, Feb. 24 (U. P.).— A small formation of Japanese bombers and fighters raided an American air base in northeast Assam yesterday afternoon, causing
action limited manufacturers id furniture to 35 per cent of tx offered in September,
enemy planes bombed Ankang, in south Shensi province. Bitter fighting flared along the west bank of the Salween river, near Mangpeng, as Chinese guerillas resisted a Japanese‘ advance.
A. F. L. AGAIN SPURNS SOVIET AFFILIATION
‘NEW YORK, Feb. 24 (U. P.)— Matthew Woll; vice president, and t damage and a few casual-|George Meany, secretary, of the A. ties, an allied headquarters com-|F. of L., last night issued a joint munique said today. . | statement “reaffirming ‘the federaYesterday RAF Blenheim bombers|tion’s refusal to accept affiliation attacked the Japanese-occupied|with Soviet trade unions. villages of Myaungbwe, approxi-| The statement said affiliation mately 56 miles northeast of Akyab|with the Soviet union was “undein western Burma, and Pauktaw,|sirable because . . . Soviet trade approximately 12 miles northeast of |unions are not free labor organizaAkyab, and bombs were seen to|tions in ‘the democratic sense, but burst on both targets, the com-|are instruments of a state.” i TH wer! : ; - GEISEL TO TALK AT PURDUE | idle Said. aorge fifes Wer®! SHARE. BRITISH RIGHTS LAFAYETTE, Feb. 24 (U.P) — - "BAGDAD, Feb. 2¢ (U. P)— Harry Geisel, Indianapolis, dean of}. "WALLACE TO VISIT CHILI United States and other united the American League umpire staff] SANTIAGO, Chile, Feb. 24 (U. P.).| nations forces were given equal who retired last year after 18 years|—U. S. Vice President Henry A.|standing with British units in Iraq of service, will speak when members| Wallace has accepted President Juan|today. The chamber of ' deputies presse : A of the Purdue University basketbell| Antonio Rios’ invitation to . visit|passed a bill extending for thejada and the Soviet Union would} squad are honored March 2, uni-|Chile ahd is expected here towardduration to-all allies the immunities|strengthen- their friendship inthe} versity athletic heads announced to- privileges enjoyed by ‘British{post-war ‘efforts to build. a . better}. day. SET CT under wera,
Ie Vragnaninty -c A
1941, or to 24 patterns—whichever is greater. . r
HOLD EVERYTHING
moment may be shaken. To understand is better, for when one begins to understand he has already parted company with blind belief.” = “Christian Sciencé,” she continued, “opens the eyes of mortals to th same eternal, -changeless facts of being which our beloved Master,
INGTON, Tuesday—Yesterday ° morning, for representing nations. The air was soft and pleasChiang and I left about 10:45 ant and I listened with interest ‘to all that Mme. and drove first to the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, - Chiang and the president were talking about. where, as a representative of her nation, Mme. Chiang - Once at Mt. Vernon, Jo rove Stony Wo Vash . laid a th. The usual ceremony, the playing of ington’s tomb, where both my hus i's an el v ! iy the national anthems and the Chiang’s wreaths were laid inside the crypt. By Jesus Chick Warsi S04 Sons bugle blowing taps, seemed asim- chance, Governor Darden of Virginia happened to be| = “c y mighty wo Chrispressive to me as ever. there and he joined us, which was very pleasant. |. ok bases Sone fusions 3 on I find it even harder now not Mhe, Chiang was interested in Mrs. Washington’s| greal Juda era Lae to weep. when those bugle notes tea set, which is quite evidently Chinese porcelain.|®"¢% “F¢ B88 2 0 c een float into the air, and I think of She liked the lantern in the hall, which she said DA ad Si including man. snust how often they are being heard might be found in a Chinese house. The fields of have been. and is, spiriual” over the fresh graves of our boys winter wheat reminded Mme, Chiang of China, and ; 3 in many parts of the world. We she said rather wistfully that the scene might be a are getting so much sad news Chinese countryside and the house and buildings these days, both in the loss of something like a Chinese compound, ships and of men, that one’s emo- .In the afternoon, we had tea with thé Vice Presitions are rather close to the dent and Mrs. Wallace. The members of the cabinet lf Chass surfape. % and their wives were invited. Mme, Chiang was pres- "* #rom the tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we drove ent. In the evening, I attended the Democratic nadirectly to Mt. Vernon. It was not as restful a drive tional committee’s dinner, which the president adas'T had hoped it might be, bec we! were sur- dressed over the radio, It seemed to me that his : ( noise, speech ‘was not a partisan one, but addressed to peopays ple of all political parties. : :
WASH the president, Mme.
2