Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 April 1943 — Page 9
be
* Hoosier Vagabond
NORTHERN TUNISIA (By Wireless) —I hate to think of poor, little Sfax. I believe it must have been the prettiest of all . the Tunisian cities we have seen so far. Somehow it had something of Miami’s Biscayne blvd. in it, and a little of San Diego, too. -But it is gone, now—I mean the downtown business part, for it lay right jf on the waterfront and our allied - bombers played havoc with it.
The whole business section, of. course, was evacuated before the.
bombing started, so probably there was only a slight loss of life. The French feel that we should not have bombed Sfax, because it was Prench. But it was one of Germany’s big supply ports, and not to have bombed it would have bien cutting our own throats as well as the throats ‘of all Frenchmen. Kairouan—this holy city is one of the minor ‘meccas. They say seven journeys to Kairouan equal ‘one to Mecca. It wasn’t holy to the Germans. They used it all winter as a big rail and highway supply point.
‘Wonderful Girl of Kairouan WE GOT TO Kairouan shortly after the Germans
had fled before the 8th army, and to our astonishment
found the streets lined with crowds waving and cheer“ing and applauding each passing vehicle. Kairouan had been under axis domination for nearly three years but it was not damaged much by. :bombing. Therein lies a slight mixup somewhere, for last winter one of our fliers “destroyed” the Splendide hotel, which housed a German headquarters. Yet, the Splendide, I can assure you, is still
"standing, quite unharmed.
Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum
PROFILE OF THE WEEK: Powers Hapgood, the C. 1. O. director for Indiana, Harvard graduate, authority on coal mining, gardening enthusiast, and inveterate champion of . the underdog. Sometimes
described as having “the soul of a people's: lawyer,” he just can’t help dashing to the rescue of any little guy getting a pushing around.
The Sacco-Vanzetti case wass 3 =. up. Winning his degree from Harvard in three years,
an example. He was convinced the defendants in the case were innocent, but helpless because of ignorance and poverty. So he went to Boston and waged a valiant though futile effort to save them from execution. And the fact that the police regularly dragged him off to jail for making Mr. Hapgood fiery speeches on Boston commons didn’t deter him one whit. At 43, he’s a husky, energetic, aggressive and highly capable idealist with a strong hatred for intolerance and prejudices. He's 5 feet 10%, weighs 170, has warm, friendly, brown eyes, and dark brown hair that’s turning gray. He's deadly serious about his ideals, but has a nice sense of humor. He won’t accept anyone’s unfavorable appraisal of another; has to find out for himself,
Once a Vegetarian
POWERS LIVES on a farm near Southport, looks after a couple of horses and about 600 chickens be-
fore going to work in the morning. He invariably arrives ‘at his office’ with muddy" overshoes. He has a big garden each summer and keeps it as clean of weeds as a Dutch kitchen. He’s fond of vegetables, in fact was a vegetarian at one time. A strong family man, he gets much enjoyment from his two children, 13-year-old Barta (named for Vanzetti) and Donovan, 12. He and Mrs. Hapgood also are the foster parents of two young Chinese orphans, a boy, 8, and a girl 9. These foster children are being reared in China at his expense and eventually will be brought over here for college. His desk at the office usually is littered. And he has his own filing system—in his pockets. They're always bulging with letters and other papers. Some-
Washington
Mr. Clapper stopped over in Bermuda on his way to Sweden. His first dispatches from Stockholm are expected shortly.
HAMILTON, Bermuda, April 19 (By Air Mail). —War has wrought its ravages even here in peaceful Bermuda. You don’t find the war in evidence ‘in the same way it is in London, or Chungking. No bombed buildings tell you that war has been here. What the war is doing to Bermuda is noted in the colonial as--sembly now in session, debating the hated automobile which is thrusting its ugly nose into the isolated serenity of this small island. Just now the assembly has voted an annual license fee of 20 pounds a year, which is $80. It " was a bitter fight, as a large . minority was against allowing automobiles in at all under any conditions. Only recently has Bermuda permitted automobiles to come in for physicians. Previously a doctor, summoned on an emergency call, had to mount his bicycle or get into his horse-drawn buggy and make it as fast as he could. The American army and navy have forced the change, and from the comment of some that I have heard here in their franker moments I suspect it was high time the change was made. The army and ‘navy have brought in the station wagon, which is used around here much as it is in the suburbs in the
* United States.
i
Bermuda Now Is Busy Place
THE IDEA that Bermuda is so small that you don’t need automobiles is not correct. We were 45 minutes going by car from our hotel to the army
My Day
PT. WORTH, Tex. Friday.—A call has gone out from the government fo every housewife in this nation. If she does not actually run her own kitchen, then she should see that whoever holds sway there understands the importance of her particular war job—the salvaging of fat for the use of the government. Fats contain glycerine, glycerine makes gunpowder, explosives and mediThe Japanese occupation of the Far East has cut much of our
ford to do that. Our boys fighting in every corner|:
"and waving, had given to scores of women-hungry
‘ing in coal mines in Germany, England, France and
By Ernie Pyle
In Kairouan we saw the first white women most of us have seen in a long time. I remember three French girls who stood on a street corner. for hours waving and smiling at the allied tanks and trucks
as they passed through the town. One of the girls had on a blue skirt and a white waist, I remember, which made her stand out from the others. The reason I'm telling you this is that in the days that followed, all over Tunisia, I'd fall into conversation with soldiers and they'd begin telling about the wonderful girl they saw in Kairouan. Eventually they'd describe how she was dressed, and it always turned out to be Miss Blue Skirt and White Waist. This one girl, merely by standing in the street
men an illusion of Broadway and Main st. that they'd not known in months.
Gafsa Wrecked and Pillaged
GAFSA IS the southern town we took back after it had been in German hands for a couple of months. Gafsa was not much damaged by shot and shell, but it ‘was gutted by the cruel hands of mean men. When we returned to Gafsa ‘the streets were littered, and the homes of all the Jews and betteroff French and Arabs were wrecked. That's about all on our tour of the battlefields. The Germans, by stripping the country of provisions, probably caused more grief than either side did by actual battle. The tank-tracked fields will soon grow over. The blowing sands will fill the hundreds of thousands of expedient slit trenches. Ammunition boxes and gas cans and abandoned tanks will rust themselves into oblivion. Dessicated little towns will be rebuilt. And the Arab, as he has done for centuries, will go on about his slow business in the old way that suits him best.
times in digging through them he finds letters his wife gave him to mail a week before. No matter how busy he is, he always calls home! several times a day.’
Speaks Four Languages
THE SON OF William P. Hapgood of Columbia Conserve fame, he was born in Chicago, reared here, and was in officer training when the other war wound
he began working in coal mines to prove the theories he had studied in school. He made a two-year trip around the world, work-
Siberia, and learning to speak French, German and Russian. Later he became an organizer for the United Mine Workers, then a field representative of the C.I1.0., for several years was president of the United Shoe Workers of America, District 30, and he helped organize the downtrodden southern sharecropper. He came here as C. I. O. regional director for Indiana in September, 1941.
Refuses to Be ‘Bossed’
HE ALWAYS wears dark suits. Once, when he was younger, he was going to a funeral and asked his mother what to wear. “Why, wear what you always wear,” she said. “You always are dressed fit for a funeral.” He likes the movies, particularly ~those with social significance. He loves animals, and every stray dog can count on a home with him. There are two at his home now He likes westerns and other adventure stories, and reads them every night before going to bed. His walk is repid, and he takes enormous strides. Frequently he walks out of the office forgetting to take his briefcase, and has to’ return for it. - And every time he takes his coat off the halltree in his office, the hanger falls on the floor. He just grins sheepishly. He concentrates intensely, sometimes looking a person squarely in the eye for several minutes without batting an eyelash. And he refuses to be bossed in a matter of integrity. In the last presidential race, John L. Lewis sent word down the line to “go for Willkie.” Powers ignored the order. - He voted for the. man of his choice—Norman Thomas.
By Raymond Clapper
base—although part of the time is accounted for by the fact that there is a low speed limit and the roads are winding and just wide enough for two vehicles to pass. During the leisure days before the war, people thought nothing of pedaling 5 or 10 miles into town to shop. This was a place where people dressed for dinner a great deal. A husband and wife would pack their dinner clothes in their bicycle baskets, dress in old sport clothes, pedal to their hosts’ home! and change there for dinner, and then change back again before starting homie. Now, however, Bermuda is a very busy place indeed. It is full of American army and navy personnel and is becoming one of the major fortresses of the Atlantic. The amount of work done here on these bases in the last two years will astound the people back home when they are able to be told about it. Excellent co-operation between the United States and Great Britain, between the people here, and the unity of command under an American admiral are marks of a new energetic activity here.
Island Is Military Bulwark
BERMUDA IS, as you can see from your map, the central island point off the United States’ eastern seaboard. It is within five or six hundred miles of the entire eastern coastline, and thus in enemy hands would be a most dangerous bombing base against the most vital area in the United States. This horse-and-buggy resort island, which once lived only as a pleasure resort, has now, in the space of two years, changed into an important military bulwark of the northern hemisphere. Never again will Bermuda be the same kind of Shangri-La that it once was for the rich of America. The magnificent cottage of Vincent Astor is now in a warlike setting. The Atlantic playground may again be a playground after the war, but never again will it be only that. -
By Eleanor Roosevelt |
household fat salvage collections are only running at the rate of 90,000,000 pounds a year. This still leaves some distance to go in our households, and yet that is the place where this whole balance must come from. It is more difficult, of course for the smaller households to make a real contribution, and many a woman feels that half a cup of fat is not worth saving. But it is the multiplication of half cups which counts in the long run. We shall only reach our goal with the co-operation of the small households as well as the large ones, to turn in whatever they do not need for personal use. One pound of used cooking fat will produce enough glycerine to make a pound and a half of smokeless powder, It is estimated that American women throw
away a billion pounds of waste kitchen fat every year. |
That means that we are throwing away a billion and a half pounds of smokeless powder. We cannot af-
of the globe need that powder and iis 15 one of the
JAPS MASSING 2000 AIRCRAFT
Australia Menaced by Huge Island Concentrations,
Forde Warns.
By UNITED PRESS Allled communiques today reported land, sea and air actions against Japanese bases as Australia Army Minister F. M. Forde warned
that the enemy had facilities built for 2000 planes in the island arc menacing Australia. Forde, returning from a tour of Western Australia, said strategic plans were based on the assumption that sooner or later the Japanese will try to invade "Australia and that troops in the Western end of the nation were sef to meet the attempt. “We must assume an attack against northeast or northwest Australia is a distinct possibility and must plan accordingly,” Forde said. Japs Will Move
Noting the regularly reported Japanese reinforcing of their 2500mile arc of bases north of Australia, Forde said it was certain the enemy “wouldn’t stay put.” “The Japanese have prepared landing strips sufficient for 2000 planes on the islands north of Australia where it is believed they have concentrated 200,000 men,” he said. Western Australia troops are as well trained as others in the country, he added, and are ready for the Japanese if they try a landing under a cloud of air strength anywhere on the western coast. Gen. Douglas MacArthur's communique reported the probable sinking of an 8000-ton Japanese cruiser off Kavieng, New Ireland, and said ground forces last week wiped out 20 Japanese holding an outpost only seven miles from Salamaua, on the New Guinea coast.
Successes Hinted
Dispatches from the Pacific hinted that aliled successes, when revealed, will be “surprising,” possibly similar to the occupation of the Funafuti atoll in the Ellice islands flanking the eastern Japanese holdings. The announcement of the Ellice occupation gave no date. It was carried out without opposition and gives the U. S. a spot which might eventually be used as a partial springboard for an attack and which will protect the allied BN ping lanes. - In Burma, a British comm said British patrols had inflicted casualties on Japanese troops oOperating in the Arakan section, but that no changes in the front had occurred. British planes supported the ground troops with attacks on enemy supply ships and occupied villages. A New Delphi dispatch said authoritative allied quarters labeled Japanese claims of successes in Burma as fantastic. In the fourmonth Arakan campaign, British casualties have totaled 3514, of which 1942 were Indian troops, while the Japanese have lost at least 4200, with at least 1000 Killed. Only 392 British soldiers were known dead. The R. A. F. lost 40 planes while destroying 49 definitely and probably 60 others, it was estimated authoritatively. A Chinese communique said the Japanese had thrown more troops into fighting in northern Honan near the Shansi border where they are trying to cut off Chinese troops in the Chung-tiao range of mountains which have harried them for three years.
LOU WHEELDON DEAD; SERVICES MONDAY
Miss Lou Wheeldon, a native of Waynesburg and a resident of Indianapolis for 25 years, died early yesterday in her home, 337 N. Davidson st., after an illness of five years. She was 72. ! The Rev. O. A. Trinkle, pastor of the Englewood Christian church, will conduct the funeral services in the Grinsteiner funeral home at 2 p. m. Monday. Burial will be in Floral Park. Miss Wheeldon is survived by a niece, Mrs. Alice Gibson, and a nephew, Henry Wheeldon, both of Indianapolis.
SEVEN LAST WORDS TO BE BROADCAST
“The Seven Last Words of Christ,” sacred cantata by Dubois, will be presented at 6 p. m. today by the Central Christian church choir on the Jordan Music broadcast over WIRE. Fred Jefry- directs the 54-voice group, with Mrs. Jefry as accompanist. Soloists will be Carol Lee Geisler, Bernard DeVore and Carl Hoge, with commentary by Walter D. Hickman, .
Your Blood Is Needed
April quota for Red Cross Blood Plasma Center — 5400
Youcan help meet the quota by calling LI-1441 for an ap‘pointment or going to the of Commerce “building, . - Re ‘Meridian st. 1
in which every woian can contribute to the
IN PACIFIC ARC!
The three sons of Detective and Mrs: Raymond J. Wachtstetter, 310 Harlan st., are in the services, and tonight a fourth service man will
become a member of the family. A daughter, Miss Helen Virginia .Wachtstetter, will be married to Lt. Blaine Crowl of the U, 8S. marines at 7 p. m. in the chapel at the Quantico, Va., marine base. The bride-to-be is a graduate of Technical high school and attended Indiana university extension division. She has been employed by the Indiana Bell Telephone Co. for more than four years. Lt. Crowl’s home is'at Hamilton, Ind. He is a graduate of Purdue university.
Marine to Join Family
Left to right, top, Raymond, Joseph and Earl Wachtstetter; below, Lt. Blaine Crowl and Miss Helen Wachtstetter.
Fireman 1-¢ Earl Wachtstetter is on duty on a sub chaser in the Atlantic. He is a graduate of Tech and attended Purdue. Before enlisting a year ago he was employed at the International Harvester Co. Pfc. Joseph Wachtstetter of the marines is an aviation communications man on duty in the Southern Pacific. He is a Tech graduate and was a Pennsylvania railroad flagman when he entered the service last June. Raymond J. (Pat) Wachtstetter Jr. is stationed with the marine aviation division at Santa Ana. Cal. He attended Tech. Detective Wachtstetter has been a member of the police force for 23 years.
DEFEND REPORT ON SHIP LOSSES
Truman Committee Members Insist More Sunk Than Built in 1942.
WASHINGTON, April 24 (U. P.). ~The senate Truman committee stood its ground against Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox today on its report that allied shipping losses
in 1942 exceeded the combined’
American and British merchant ship construction during the year. The committee reported Thursday that axis submarines had sunk an average of 1,000,000 tons a month during 1942 and “exceeded new construction built by the United States and Great Britain.” Knox told a press conference yesterday that the committee’s 12,000,-000-ton loss figure was “grossly inaccurate.” “While it may not prove to be perfect in every detail, it is in the aggregate the most accurate report on the subject to date,” retorted Senator James M. Mead (D. N. Y)), committee member who made the report to the senate. Mead and Senator Ralph O. Brewster (R. Me.), another committee member, both threw responsibility for accuracy of the figures back to Knox's navy department. Both of ‘them pointed out that the report was submitted to the navy department, which had the privilege of protest and suggesting correction, several days before it was made public. Knox told his press conference that he assumed the Truman committee got its figures “from unautnorized and uninformed sources.”
THIS CURIOUS WORLD
BUILT ITS NEST AND RAISED ITS FAMILY WITHIN. FOUR FEET OF THE RAILS OF THE MAIN LINE OF THE BURLINGTON RAILWAY.
A BUCK RAKE IS-A FARM /MPLEMENT COME LED ON MOAR LOOTBALL PLAY
Escapes as Auto
Stalls on Tracks
IT HAPPENS in lots of the “thriller” movies, but Mrs. W, E. Evans, 50, of 4103 Spann ave,
never thought it would happen to her .. . until yesterday. She was driving north on Tibbs ave., started to cross the railroad tracks, suddenly heard and saw a New York Central train racing toward her. When she attempted td go into reverse, the auto stalled on the tracks. Mrs. Evans didn’t wait to find out why. She jumped clear of the auto, which was struck by the train. And to finish things up, she was arrested on a charge. of disobeying a railroad signal. Mrs. Evans told police .that shrubbery obstructed her view.
MAILMEN TO BRING ‘OPA APPLICATIONS
When applications for war ration book 3 are distributed late in June, the Indianapolis postoffice is expected to handle about 1,026,800 pieces of mail for the OPA.
This time there will be no schoolhouse registration. Instead, application forms, good for an individual or an entire family, will be dropped in every mailbox by postmen between May 20 and June 5. head of the house will fill them out for the entire family and post them between June 1 and 10. OPA mail centers will begin sending out the books late in June. The postcard applications will be distributed by letter carriers and
each postoffice will have an extra
supply. All applications for book 3 must be in the mails by midnight, June 10.
By William Ferguson
JUMPER, BAILED OUT AT RO, 8/3 FEET AND
FELL. MORE THAN
The
COUNTY NEEDS $2,165,000 TO TOP LOAN GOAL
Resentment Over Tokyo Executions Brings an Upsurge in Buying.
Marion county bond buyers will have to shell out $2,165,380 for bonds next week if the county goes over the top in the second war loan drive.
While Indiana was the first state to meet its drive quota, Marion
county sales so far are only $31,894,620, and its quota, which must be reached by next Saturday, is $34,060.000. Resentment over the Tokyo mur-
ders of American airmen caused an upsurge in the bond buying, and employees of firms are buying bonds with portions of their pay checks,
Buy ‘Extra’ Bond
To help Marion county reach its quota, employees of the HerfI-Jones Co. yesterday started an “extra bond” campaign. The idea was originated by Clarence Bernard, an employee, and $200 in bonds will be given as prizes in the drive. Every employee who purchases an extra bond—one more than his payroll savings accumulations will buy —will be eligible for a bond prize. To cpen the drive, Kenneth Chaney, a former employee who, as a navy seaman, had been reported lost when his merchant ship was torpedoed and sunk, visited the plant. Seaman Chaney previously had been rescued from the sea after the aircraft carrier, Wasp, was sunk, Introducing Seaman Chaney at a rally at the factory, Harry Herfl, president, said, “These are the boys who are giving. We're only lending «+ + +» at interest.”
Union Buys $500 Worth
The Herff-Jones guild has purchased $2000 in bonds with its own funds while the union bought $500 worth of bonds. When the drives closes next Friday, most of the company’s 400 employees will have bought one or more extra bonds. “We are sure of success if each one of us does all he can, invests every spare dollar above what is needed for necessities,” Robert A. Adams, co-chairman of the county’s war finance committee, said.
FINNS WORRIED BY U, S. MOVE
Shift of Legation Staff Hints Military Action
In Scandinavia.
WASHINGTON, April 24 (U. P.). —An apparent turn for the worse in PFinnish-American relations today provoked speculation that the Scandinavian peninsula may play an important part in allied spring
offensive plans. The United States has moved all of its legation staff from Helsinki to Stockholm. That was revealed by the Berlin radio, and confirmed later by the state department. Officials described the move as only “an administrative measure.” But Finnish circles were worried.
Charge D’Affairs Stays
Techmically, this does not affect the maintenance of diplomatic relations. American Minister H. F. Arthur Schoenfeld has been in this country for several months “for consultation,” but representation is still maintained by Charge d’Affairs Robert Mills McClintock. There was no indication that Finland, in turn, would remove from Washington any part -of her sizable legation, headed by Minister Hjalmar J. Procope. Speculation on spring military activities in Scandinavia stems from President Roosevelt's specific mention of Norway as a possible place for a second European front. He told the White House correspondents that earlier this year.
GECELIA MATELICH SERVICES MONDAY
Funeral services will -be held at
10 a. m. Monday in the home for Mrs. Cecelia Matelich who died at
her home Thursday. Burial will be
1in Crown Hill, Mrs. Matelich, who was 52, resided She was a native| } of Austria and had lived in Indian-| "=
at 943 Holmes ave.
apolis 27 years. She was a member of the Slovanian National Benefit Survivors are her husband, John
Naval Officers Lt. James Weber, 3 8. .N."R., officer in charge 1
Mothers club at 7:30 p, m. Wednesday in the WAVES recruiting office, 116 Monument
circle. Husbands will be special : guests, and all parents of navy Ensign Helm fliers are asked to attend. Ane other speaker will be Ensign Richard Helm, U. 8, N. R,, whe will speak on WAVE enlistments, Mrs. Edward V. Mitchell is pestis dent.
In the Services—
FUTURE CADETS 60 TO COLLEGE
Pvt. Robert W. Weedon in Mississippi; Pvt. McCalley
In Missouri.
Two future aviation cadets now enrolled in college aviation courses are Pvt. Robert H. Weedon and Pvt, Richard E. McCalley. Pvt. Weedon, whose home is ab 3763 Broadway, has arrived a$ Mississippi State college for a five= month course of instruction which will make him eligible to appoint ment as a cadet in the army forces flying trainihg command. Upon completion of the course he . will receive further training as & navigator, pilot or bombarier. Pvt. McCalley, 638 Eastern ave, has commenced training as an air crew student at Jefferson college, St. Louis, Mo. ~ He was designated by the aviation cadet examining board and sent to this college for academic and mili-
tary waning.
Pvt. Keller Pfc. Preda LEFT: Pvt. Carl Leon Keller has returned to Ft. Wool, Mo, after : spending a furlough with his pare ents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Keller, 462% 4 W. Washington st. Pvt, Keller is. a. gunner in the field artillery, He was employed by the Capitol City Supply Co. before entering service and attended Manual high school,
RIGHT: Pfc. Joseph Preda, son of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Preda, 2441 Rybolt ave., finished the welding couse at the Ohio institute of aero= nautics, Columbus, O., and is now at Tinker field in a repairssquadron, Pfc. Preda graduated from Ben is Davis high school, where he was & member of the wrestling team, and = was employed at the Paper Package Co. before he entered service 1 October. He has two brothers service, Earl, in the infantry ‘in Africa and John, reported missing in North Africa. :
Fort Men Shifted
Transferred from Ft. Harrison te the camps named are the following = privates: To Camp Wheeler, Ga.: Paul Younger, son of William Younger, 2332 Yandes st.; James Wilson, som of Mrs. Nettie Wilson, 2464 Wine = throp ave.; Peter B. C. Brown Jr, son of Mrs. Ruth Miller Brown, 837. Fayette st., and Alonzoe L. Whi son of Mrs. Hattie White, 2340 Keystone ave. To Miami, Fla.: Forest A. Par husband of Mrs. Dorothy V. Par 1239 Hiatt st., and Thomas B 1 son of Mrs. Daisy Blajr, 2321 Co= Hl lumbia ave. 4 To Jefferson Barracks, Mo.: wile J liam K. Matthews, son of Mrs. Mas rie Grace Matthews, 2510 Winthrop ave.: Arthur D. Kessler, son of Are’ thur A. Kessler, 8833 E. 21st and Edward C. Wakelam, son Mrs. E. C. Wakelam, Beech Grove, To Gadsden, Ala.: Ernest J son of Mrs. Anna Jarrett, 2439 } tindale ave. and Causton White son of Mrs. Mary Whiteside, : Martindale ave.
HARMON ON AIR TONIGHT An interview with Lt. DIY Harmon, former all-American foobs ball player who was recently fol os in a South American jungle after & plane crack-up, will be broadcast by WIRE at 9:15 tonight.
HOLD EVERYTHING