Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 April 1943 — Page 11
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&- or can anybody get in?”
Hoosier Vagabond
them. When I finally found Allen:he said, “Don’t
IN TUNISIA.—Maj. Gen. Terry Allen is one of my vorite people. Partly because he doesn’t give a damn for. hell nor high water; partly because he’s more colorful than most; and partly because he’s the _ only general outside the air forces I can call by his first name. If there’s one thing in the world Allen lives and breathes for, it’s to fight. He was all shot up in
the last war, and he seems not the °
least averse to getting shot up again. This is no intellectual war with him. He hates Germans and Italians like vermin, and his pattern for victory is simple—just wade in and murder the hell out of the lowdown, good-for-nothing so-and-so’s. Allen's shesth is picturesque. No writer can fully capture him on paper, because his talk is so wonderfully profane it can’t be put down in black and white. Allen was shot through the jaw in the last war. This wound causes him to make an odd hissing noise when he is intense. He breathes by sucking the air in between his teeth, and it sounds like a leak in a tire. - This reverse hissing’ will doubtléss confuse the Japs when he gets around to that part of the world.
Guest in the General's Tent
IT WAS GEN. ALLEN'S outfit that took Oran, in the original landings. Then it was necessary to hold his troops there, and for a couple of months Allen not-so-quietly went nuts sitting back in an Oran olive grove watching the war from a distance. Finally he couldn't stand it any longer, so he went to the high command and said, “Is this a private war, At least that’s the way the legend. goes, and it sounds like him, At any rate Allen got in, and now he’s as happy as a lark. ~~ After they came to the front I drove over to visit
Inside Indianapolis By Lowel! Nussbaum
TWO ALLISON employees, Norman B. Allgood and James E. Wagner, were driving to work the other morning on 16th st. when, according to the AllisoNews, Lady Luck up and kissed them both. #n the middle of the street lay a glass jar, still sealed and untouched. And in the jar was a whole pound of coffee. The contents were divided, down to the last grains, between the two families. . . . A black-bordered box in the AllisoNews, the employees’ publication at Allison, reads: “In Memoriam—Think, for a minute, of the boy who was killed, because of the engine we didn’t build!” . 3 . A city-bred 8-year-old re: turned home after visiting friends who have a suburban home near the John: Strange school. “Mother,” she said breathlessly, “they’ve got a victory garden and chickens, and they "get their milk strictly from a cow.”
Move About Hoosiers
IF THERE'S ANYTHING that makes us Hoosiers good and mad, it’s for Someone from another state to call us Hoosiers—witlx a sneer. And so lots of Hoosiers became properly indignant last week when
x they read about the ruckus aboard a St. Louis street-
ye
"car when the motorman called a fare-dodging passen-
ger a Hoosier. The passenger shoved the motorman’s head through the window, and, youll remember, a judge freed the passenger, fined the motorman $100, and said he'd probably have done just what the passenger did. Carl Vogelsang of the state highway department says it’s high time Hoosierland did something to informeour neighboring states that the term, “Hoosier,” is NOT a synonym for “yokel.” Mrs. John Langley (R. R. 6, Box 358) recalls being in St. Louis and being introduced to the younger set as a “Hoosier” and immediately they all laughed and wisecracked. They seemed to think, Mrs. Langley said,
Washington
WASHINGTON, April 13.—Some may wonder why the newspapers are concerned over the wish of ‘President Roosevelt to keep the first big united nations conference closed against the press. It is a conference concerning food, and a considerable portion of the work will be technical “and of comparatively little general . interest. I myself do not expect to report the conference or even be in the country when it is held. Yet I am very mueh concerned over the attempt President Roosevelt has made to exclude the press from all contact with representatives at this conference. I am concerned about it because I hope there will be many united nations conferences and I Fwant the people to know about them .and to share in them. I hope thal, nations will be meeting in this way for generations to come. I hope the people of all countries will have more and more control over their governments. I hope we are to have an increasingly democratic world, and that the nations of this democratic world will solve ‘their problems meeting together in friendly
) - conférencé and not ever again try to:.solve them by
‘the method -of mass murder that has been resorted to up to now. : If the people of all colititpies—and I think this applies unquestionably in Germany and Italy and perhaps in Japan—could have had their way there would have been no war this time.
Free Discussion. Fundamental
THIS WEEK we are paying honor to the memory of our patron saint of democracy, Thomas Jeffer-
son. ‘He believed that laws and institutions must:
go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. But always the strength of society, in his judgment, rested in the heart of the people, in acceptance of the decisions of the majority, in freedom of religion,
My Day
WASHINGTON, Monday.—We are again observing “Be Kind to Animals Week” from April 11th to April 17th. Though it may seem to a good many people that a time when the world is hardly -a kind world is 10; 8 Site Yo emphasise Kinaniess to atimals, and ( that we should think primarily of our attitude toward human beings, I believe there is great value in | continuing to train children in the proper attitude toward their pets. : This is the way that they learn to be imaginative enough not to wait for someone to tell them what is the matter, but to try to understand the appealing eyes of a dumb animal. I hope that even during war, children will not have to give up their pets, but will be allowed to make personal sacrifices 0 keep them and. to look after them. gl seed plgniy of imagination in the corning how differently people feel and how situa
bother to pitch your tent. You sleep in my tent tonight.” An invitation from a general is an order, so I carried my bed-roll up to the general's tent. As far as I know, Terry Allen is the only general in Tunisia who sleeps on the ground. All the others carry folding cots. Gen. Allen won't allow any of uy staff to sleep on a cot. Why, you ask? Because he says if anybody in =O headquarters had a cot it would take several exira trucks to carry them, and he can use the trucks to better purpose. He likes to fight rough anyway.
Sleeps Like a Child
ALLEN IS AN old cavalryman. He still wears his high-laced cavalry boots when he dresses up. He married an El Paso girl, and calls El Paso home. He carries pictures of his wife and 15-year-old son in a leather pocket-case, and is tremendously proud of them. I went out on a shooting expedition that night with
>
some of Allen’s men, and it was midnight when I{
got back. He had left the light on for me, and the wind was making the tent heave and groan, but Allen was sleeping like a child. Dirt blew in and filtered over us. Thoroughly trained sentries with itchy fingers stood at the front and rear of our tent. Boy, did I feel well protected! At 7 next morning one of the sentries came in and awakened Gen. Allen. He grunted and went back to sleep. Pive minutes later another sentry came in and knelt over and kept saying, “General sir, general sir,” till Allen responded and started getting up. I had slept in all my clothes; the general in his long underwear. We were both covered with sifted dirt from the windstorm. It took us about 30 seconds to dress, and then we just walked out of the tent and went id breakfast, without washing or anys thing. " That’s how life is for one general at the front,
that the word “Hoosier” means a “dumb Sunny, hick, greenhorn, etc.” But, comments Mrs. Langley, we won’t get far with any education campaign until Hoosiers quit using “Kaintuck” as a derisive nickname for our neighbors from the south. ’
Hard on the Teeth
A YOUNG MAN, maybe 20 or 22, climbed a hit uncertainly aboard a 21st and Arlington bus late the other night with a long°breath and carrying a couple of bottles of beer under his arm. Taking a seat in the rear of the bus, he managed, after much maneuvering, to pull the cap from one bottle with his teeth. And then she drank the beer. When Le finished it, he picked up the other bottle and this time, to spare his teeth; walked down the aisle asking the other passengers if they had a bottle opener. None had, so he had to do without any more beer... . . Seen walking along tke canal near Meridian Sunday afternoon: A snappy looking young woman wearing a red bow in her hair, high-heeled red shoes, a soft creamcolored coat, and being towed by two matching salukis —those ultra, ultra Afghan hounds. . . . Lieut. (jg) Bob Woolling is home on leave after service in the Pacific as a catapult pilot aboard a cruiser. It.is his first visit home in a year. .
Around the Town
HAL JACKSON, the Caps’ ace defense man, who was called up to Detroit just before the play-offs -started,, and who helped the Red Wings win the Stanley cup, postcards back to ask Frank Widner to say goodby for him to all the friends he made in Indianapolis. “It was swell knowing you,” says Hal. He’s returning to his home in Windsor. . . . Polly Hoover of the OPA staff received a royalty check the other day. It was for the textbook, “Copy,” her husband, Maj. Don Hoover, now in Africa, wrote several years ago. The check was for 25 cents. . . . First Lieut. Dwight F. Morgan, pilot of a Liberator bomber, probably is in Africa by now. He was scheduled to fly his ship, the Yankee Rebel, across the Atlantic last week.
By Raymond Clapper
the press, frestom of discussion, and in the preservation of civil rights. In the preservation of all this nothing is more basic than free discussion. And the press is one of the principal agencies of free discussion. There is no military reason why the press should not have free access to the first united nations conference, which is to open May 18 at Hot Springs, Va. Yet President Roosevelt by his own personal direction, against the earnest protest of Elmer Davis of OWI and of others in the government, has persisted in ordering arrangements that will treat newspaper and radio representatives—who after all are merely Ses and ears for the American people—like moral epers.
Views Press as an Irritation
MR. ROOSEVELT thinks of the press as a nuisance, or as an irritation, or as’ offering a medium through which mischief might be done during the united nations’ food conference. Surely Mr. Roosevelt does not think the press should omit all comment on the work of the conference. But such comment must be based on independent newspaper reporting at Hot Springs itself. What confidence can’ be inspired and what useful comment can be made on the basis of official communiques alone? The very thought of it is absurd to any newspaperman who knews how communiques are written and How little is said in them.
We know how they are. doctored and how they!
must be devitalized to cover up even healthy and moderate differences of opinion. Only saps believe that official communiques tell the whole truth. T have never thought Mr. Roosevelt had any designs against the press. I do not know now that he has. I do think he is terribly mistaken in his judgment this time and ‘is insisting upon a precedent that might, as time goes on, easily become a most vicious menace to free discussion in America. His own OWI people say privately that this Hot Springs arrangement is bound to break down in practice because it is so mistaken. I hope and believe they are correct.
‘By Eleanor Roosevelt
want pity, but they all need understanding and help to face whatever situations may come to them. I have been watching with interest the Tod Murray bill in New York state, which the governor has just signed. It redefines war work and says it is: “Non-combatant service performed in connection with the manufacture, production and distribution of articles, materials and supplies for war, or non-com-
batant service performed in connection with any other ist.
work related thereto, or non-combatant service performed in connection with any occupation, activity or employment essential to the effective prosecution of the war, or necessary to promote and protect the public health and welfare, the safety and security of the country and the state.” . It is the redefinition of war work that is important, for the bill allows the employment of minors between the ages of 16 and 18 in this type of war work, which seems to cover a pretty broad field. If the war council watches carefully the type of dispensation which is given to industries under this bill, there 18 Probably 09 sal harm Hove, | ugh I
By Ernie Pyle|
on The | Hue oo od Cy That Follows ltty-Bitty
people. Decisions are co
has been spending days with the
Cuffless Trouser Order
Uncle Sam has suddenly started to be housewife for 134,000,000 out of Washington which constantly and intimately affect the lives and habits of all of us. To find out how all these things come to happen, Miss Maxine Garrison
officials who make the decisions.
This is the second of six stories telling how this complex regulation of everyday life is brought about. \
WASHINGTON, April 18.—Of all the multitude of
clothing regulations designed to save cloth (and if they
look complicated to you, dear Mrs. America, pity the designers who had to learn to work by them), none caused as much hue and cry as the itty-bitty one about lopping
the cuffs off men’s trousers.
Men all over the country howled as if one of their inalienable rights had been
desecrated. They couldn’t
have felt worse if they'd been told to get into ballet skirts. This puzzled Uncle Sam no little. That gentleman, in case you hadn’t noticed, has been wearing cuffless trousers these many years (the gaiter type, according to any portrait I ever saw), and for the life of him, he couldn't see what all the shootin’ was fer. Trailing this particular little item down the long halls of WPB, OPA, OSC and similar alpabetical tangles, I came across a guilty little secret and was able in return to tell at least one official an angle - he hadn’t heard before,
2
Woman's Suggestion
My contribution was that there's a thriving business starting in bootlegged cuffs. Retailers have told me that some men simply turn livid when told they cannot have cuffs, and walk out muttering, “I know where I can get them.” Then they proceed to find hard-pressed or unscrupulous dealers or tailors who are willing to wink at the regulation. What I learned was—I hesitate even to mention it, and the name will remain forever a secret as far as I'm concerned—it was a woman who made the original suggestion to abolish cuffs! A designer who'd been called in to help draw up the plans for conserving fabric, particularly wool, saw immediately that the few inches of fabric per cuff per trouser leg, if saved, would mean thousands of yards of good wool. The kickback from men wasn’t expected at all, especially since military uniforms have always been cuffiess, and admittedly hang better and look trimmer than civilian trousers.
"
Is This Clear?
One official admitted that he couldn’t testify for cuffless trousers from personal experience — and thrust out a cuffed leg to prove it—but said ‘it was his newest suit, and it was three years old. Hadn't had to have the cuff turned yet, either, which he thought was a pretty good answer to the plea that cuffs are the only way to make trousers last. Now about the savings of which men are so dubious. It is estimated that in one year, lopped-off cuffs amounted to about 100,000 entire suits—which ain’t hay. As to the how—that, too, is sim-
NOMINATE 2 FOR |.U. ALUMNIPOST
Herold, Sanders Candidates For Presidency of Association.
Times Special BLOOMINGTON, Ind. April 13. —Two Hoosier-born graduates of Indiana university who have become nationally known have been nominated for the presidency of the university’s* alumni association, The men are Don Herold of New York and Everett Sanders of Washington. » Former secretary to President Coolidge, Mr. Sanders is a native of Clay county. He was graduated from the I. U. school of law in 1907. Now an attorney in Washington, he served four terms in congréss from Indiana and was chairman of the Republican national committee: Noted Cartoonist ; Mr. Herold is a native of Bloomfield and was graduated in 1913. He is widely known as a cartoonist, writer and advertising special-
#” 2
» »
Other nominations made by the committee in charge are Mrs: Myra Allison Briggs, Indianapolis, and Mrs. Ruth Derrick Ruch, Prankfort, vice president; H. B. Allman, Muncie; William H. Dobbins, Colunmbus; Miss Minnie Lloyd, Indianapolis; Mrs. M. Jane Vesey Smith, F. Wayne, and Mark Wakefield, Evansville, three to be chosen for executive council, and Ward G. Biddle, Bloomington, treasurer. University alumni will vote by
JARCOL Belp Squetuing wis nee We the
pal balls, beloie com-
ple. The snipped-off fabric does not go into the nearest waste basket. Retailers save it until they've a sizeable amount, and then sénd it back to the manufacturer. He in turn sends it to the mill. At the mill, the fabric is un-woven, bleached, re-woven into whole cloth and re-dyed. Thus it becomes re-processed wool, perfectly good, unused fabric which may be cut into new suits. Now, Rollo, is it clear? - - You girls, in your shopping, have been corrugating your brows over the business of matched outfits. To find the answer to that one. I found myself ‘way off at the end of nowhere, in some offices the WPB set up in what was once a proud auto Shovroom and warehouse. For years now you've been able to buy matched ensembles ranging up to five or more pieces, all sold at one price. You might get a topcoat, tailored suit and blouse.
“Mrs, U, S of 1943, . . . Skirts are “regimented.”
Or a dress with its own contrasting or matching jacket. Or a playsuit combining shorts, bra-top, blouse, skirt and jacket. The idea was to give you virtually a whole wardrobe at one buy, and to encourage the mix-match trick with other items in your closet.
” ” 8 ‘ But L-85—the. famous WPB order which regulated fabric and design in women’s outer clothing —put an end to ensembles. It put an end, that is, to ensembles sold at one price. No dress with jacket, no suit with blouse, no suit with slacks. Conservation of fabric was the reason given, and so far so good. Tripping through your favorite dress department one day, however, you saw a suit with its own blouse hanging on the rack. The difference was that the blouse and suit were priced separately. Nearby were blouses and skirts made of the same fabric, and coats, skirts and slacks of another fabric designed to go with them. “What’s going on?” you asked
——
IRE av rRB Ira
ESSE AIR
Into the dressmaking art Uncle Sam has inserted his omniscient proboscis and has decreed how long ladies’ skirts shall be, how much wool their dresses shall contain, how much nylon their stockings shall not contain, and the quantity and quality of elastic in milady’s girdle. Uncle Sam’s specifications are exact and the accompanying story tells how he got them that way.
yourself and anybody else who happened to be hanging around. “This isn’t saving fabric—this is just charging more money for the same thing.” WPB officials would have you know, first of all, that the system does not charge more money. © Manufacturers and retailers simply divide fairly among the items what would formerly have been one unit price.
# » #
Wasted Fabric
As to how the saving in fabric . is computed, that is rather com-
plicated but reasonable. During the meetings out of which came L-85—and those meetings included designers, retailing executives, wholesalers, ' textile experts and other clothing representatives from all over the country, along
with government officials — this -
suggestion was just one of many advanced. The point made was that a woman buys a matched ensemble for convenience, adaptability and service. But it does not always work out that way. When she buys a five-piece play suit, she may never wear the jacket that goes with it. When she buys a jacket dress, she may find that the jacket doesn’t go with anything else she owns. Of a redingote ensemble, she may wear the dress but let the coat hang in her closet. She may not like and never wear the blouse that came with a suit; although the suit is a favorite outfit. » * These unused items, opined the officials, are wasted fabric. If a woman b8ught them at separate
Lonely Girls’ Club Rations
Dates Thro
WASHINGTON, April 13 (U. P). —Lonely government girls, postponing an appeal to the office of price administration to include men in the next ration book, set out yesterday to ration dates themselves through an elaborate: system. The leaders of the plan estimated that shortly 100,000 lonely girls would be available through an elaborate phone call or mail order system for lonely servicemen.. The plan was devised at a meeting of 80 government girls Sunday. When they organized the “eight girls for every man” club. Interested males seeking dates may contact the club only through their commanding officers or morale officers. They'll receive an identification card to present at the club headquarters which, under the club's
ugh Novel Plan
of all dates. Membership eligibility is a problem. But “good behavior” is the club’s keynote. Admitting that “our reputations sink or swim depending on the reputation of ‘each individual girl,” it was decided that a girl must be recommended by one of the charter members or by the women’s personnel director of a government agency. The club may solve some of the lonely evenings for government workers and visiting. servicemen, but it will cramp the style of those who “want to be alone” with their dates. By-law No. 2 stipulates that only double or triple dates are allowed. If a visiting serviceman inquires, “can I see you’ glone?” the girl's answer is:
by-laws, must be the starting placeposed to.”
2000 NAZIS KILLED IN VOLKOV ATTACK
MOSCOW, April 13 (U. P.). — Fighting along the whole length of the vast Russian front simmered down to patrol and artillery activity today following the repulse of new German attacks southeast of Leningrad and southeast of Kharkov, More than 2000 German officers and men were killed in futile enemy attacks on the Russian lines on the Volkhov sector below yesterday. Many fell in hand-to hand fighting with bayonets and _At one time, the midnight com-
nig said, the Germats ag
the Soviet lines, but
a
MANY YANKS THINK WAR TO END IN 44
LONDON, April 13 (U. P.).—More than half of the American soldiers in the European theater believe the war with Germany will end in 1944, results of a poll indicated today. Conducted by Director Willard Cruise of the Red Cross Mission club, the poll found 54 per cent of the soldiers interviewed guessing the year would be 1944, 28 per cent 1943, 14 per cent 1945, and the rest from 1946 to 1950.
———
HONOR EX-PRESIDENTS Past presidents’ day will be ob-
jserved by the Lions club at its
luncheon meeting: tomorrow at. the
“Oh, no! I'm not sup-|
prices, she would think a "long time before plunking down the cash for something she might not wear. She would decide ahead of time just how useful it would * prove. Anything she bought that way would not be so likely to be let:go to waste. And that's how matched ensembles went out in theory, but - remained in fact. : Just who, you may have queried, decided that a size 14 dress should be exactly 42% inches from shoulder to hem, with a two-inch allowance for hem? What makes them think every woman wearing 8 size 14 is the same height? Did some man who doesn’t know the first thing ‘about it just sit back
What to do now? , . . Make them all uniforms?
and decide upon 42% & nice-sounding length? For one thing, although men help make the decisions, women are consulted, and individual advisers in almost all instances have personal experience inn some phase of the clothing field. One important group is the Consumer’ Section of the OPA which, in the case of L-85, checked all figures and made suggestions which were followed. Professional groups and women consumers from many parts of the country are consulted constantly.
INVITED TO TELL OF LIFE IN U. 8.
OWI Names ‘Ambassadors’ To Visit Britain This Summer.
‘Times Special WASHINGTON, April 13.—The office of war information is preparing to send a contingent of ambas-sadors-witkout-portfolio to England
inches as
this spring and summer to inform|.
the British how Americans conduct their civilian affairs in wartime. Original plags called for trips for about 20 persons, representing a cross-section of American life, but OWI says the number probably will be reduced by transportation stringencies and the inability of some of those chosen to accept the invitations. : In addition to Mayor Frank Lausche of Cleveland, whose selection was announced earlier, OWI and the British ministry of information have invited: Mark Starr, educational director of the ’ Garment Workers union; Clarence Dykstra, president of the University of Wisconsin, first director of the selective service system, and Frederick L. Redefer, director and former executive secretary of the Progressive Education association of New York. David Cushman Coyle, economist, writer and new deal adviser, is
already in England under OWI aus- |
Travel expenses both for the ocean trip and for touring the Brit-
ish isles are being borne by OWI, |
which also is providing the usual government per-diem allowance for living
* thought would have been,
expenses, nL 18 planting to include in its "a representative business-
The ' exact figures came from exhaustive study, and they represented a composite picture from the entire country. A detailed survey was made in more than 20 fashion centers, including all types
of stores, to learn the average skirt length worn by women in these communities. It was found that the length was not parallel in all sections. The eventual length decided on was, for instance, about two inches longer than those being worn in Washington at the time. But regulations could not specify different lengths for different sections, so the effort was to select those which would represent the average for the whole nation. In probably no other field was there such cautious egg-treading as in that of women's clothes. There were those who would have liked to dismiss all the complica= tions and details. Their first “Let women wear Mother Hubbards. As long as they have enough changes to keep clean, what makes the difference?” But to have done that would have destroyed one of our most valuable industries, greatly harmed morale (the connection between a woman's appearance and her morale has been indisputably established), and created a chaos in itself wasteful. You may think that Uncle Sam has cracked down on you in the . matter of clothes. Actually, he has been as considerate as your own dressmaker could ever be. The
‘ old gentleman takes his house-
wifely duties seriously. ’
(Next—Uncle Sam decides what fabrics you can have).
HOLD EVERYTHING
“You'll have to oy your tele. graph messenger training in he if army, Private Jones!” 1
and others representing civilian groups. : Officials said the idea for an ex- A change of information on civilian functions originated with the Brite ish ministry of information, which for some time has kept from 15 to = 20 representatives of various groups ks in this country.
Your Blood | ‘Is Needed
April quota for Red Cross Blood Plasma Center — 5400 donors. Donors so far this month— 1191. . Yesterday's quota—200. Yesterday's donors—107, You can help meet the quota by calling LI-1441 for an ap pointment or Jong to the center, second floor, : Commerce