Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 May 1943 — Page 17

"FRIDAY, MAY 21. 1943

Hoosier Vagabond

IN TUNISIA (By Wireless) —Most of the German prisoners have been worked out of the forward Tunisian area by now. Where they went we don't know. They've just left for the west. Handling them and feeding them must be a tre-

mendous job. It takes a lot of transportation tec move those thousands of men back across Africa, and if we kept them in Africa we would have to use valuable shipping space bringing them food. This colossal batch of humans is, indeed, a white elephant on our hands. And yet, as somebody says, what we want is about 50 more white elephants just like this one. Although they are usually friendly and pleasant, you seldom find a prisoner who has any doubt that Germany will win the war. They say they lost here because we finally got more stuff into Tunisia than they had. But they laugh (at the idea of our invading the continent. On the ¥rhole they can't understand why America is in tke war at all, figuring it is not our business.

Know a Lot of False News

WHETHER FROM deliberate Nazi propaganda or mere natural rumor I don’t know, but the prisoners have a lot of false news in their heads. For in~fjance, some of them had heard that Japan had been at war with Russia for six months and had practicaly cleaned the Russians out of Siberia. One of them heard that the luftwaffe had bombed New York. When told that this was ridiculous, he said he didn't see himself how it could be possible. Pvt. Bill Connell, of Brooklyn, had a funny experience. He was talking with an English-speaking prisoner, and the conversation finally unearthed the information that, as Pvt. Connell says, “We know different people together” —meaning I'm sure that they had once actually lived in adjoining houses in

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

HARRY V, NORFORD, engineer at Indiana Railroad, is in the enviable position of being able to say: “I told: you so.” For years, Mr. Norford has been preditcing a big flood in 1943. He based his prediction, he- explains. on the statement that big floods run in cycles. of 30 years. He cites such floods in 1853, again in 1883, then in 1913, and now in 1943. The reasons have something to do with the sun and its travels, much too complicated for us to figure out.... Employees out at Curtiss-Wright caught a 4-inch bass without leaving the plant. It was sucked up by a pump being used to syphon out a flooded tunnel. . . . By the way, we misspelled the name of Andy Olofson of the Curtiss-Wright public relations department yesterday. We had it Olosson. And it wasn't the printers’ fault, either. . . . Terrell Denny, whose farm out near Sunshine Gardens was just outside range of the flood waters, has a problem on his hands. When the water was rising, other farmers took about 20 cows, hundreds of chickens. two horses and about 150 hogs to his pasture. Yesterday, there was a big roundup as folks tried to separate their chickens and hogs. One of the problems is how to @ivide the eggs the chickens have been laying on his farm,

pie Was Speechless GEORGE SAAS, advertising director of the Gas Company, was in an unusual spot vesterday. Elected president of the Advertising club at its luncheon, he was speechless—unable to make an acceptance speech because of laryngitis which caused him to whisper. Emmett Belzer of the phone company, saved the day by making a speech for George. . . . The RatioNews, rationing administration publication, reports that a very young soldier visited rationing board 49-1, in the war memorial headquarters, the other day,

Sweden

STOCKHOLM. May 21 (By Wireless). —The Germans’ most effective propaganda, and about the only German line that has any effect in this part of the world, is that they are fighting to save Europe from Russia. Nothing up this way makes sense unless the fear of Russia is kept in mind. It is the basis of most of the indifference to our side that exists among a limited number of people in Sweden, and particularly it is the key to much of the trouble with Finland. The Finns are playing the German game, although they are not fighting actively now and a kind of tacit armistice exists. Yet the position of Finland cannot be summarized simply by dismissing it as pro-Nazi. + Our relations with Finland are bad. They have been on the point of a break for some time, and recently the thread was ready to be snapped when a sudden postponement came, just about the time the Russian-Polish quarrel exploded. Information from good seurces is that the Finns are genuinely friendly to us on the whole. Even Marshal Mannerheim., who is regarded with extreme SIsTavoP among American anti-Fascists, has a strong i-Nazi strain.

A ‘Small Edition of Himmler’

PRO-GERMAN sentiment in Finland exists chiefly in the upper middle classes and in industrial circles. And it is usually true that any enemy of Russia is considered a friend of Finland. Also, there are some outright native Nazis. In the main, however, the strength of pro-German feeling derives from the idea of Finnish patriots that Germany can save them from¥ Russia.

My Day

WASHINGTON, Thursday.—VYesterday the cabinet ladies and I had the pleasure of giving our annual picnic lunch for the ladies of the senate. It turned out that rationing provided us with a rather more

nutritive lunch, if not such a varied and attractive one, as we formerly had. Tomorrow, May 21, is the 62d anniversary of the founding of the American Red Cross. How grateful the world is for the good which this organization has been able to accomplish in alleviating suffering. It receives from us all our whole‘hearted support and co-operation, and will continue to do so as long as there is pity for human suffering and determination on the part of human beings to help each other. I want to share with you today two letters which I have'received. One, because it shows the spirit of our own boys and must bring happiness to the people who run the Greer school, near Hyde Park, in which I have long been interested. This is an institution where youngsters, who have had a hard time, receive

By Ernie Pyle

Brookiyn—Connell at 251 Grove st, and the German at 253 Grove st. But that coincidence didn’t cause any old-palship to spring up between them, for the prisoner ‘was one of those bull-headed Nazis and Connell got so dis-

gusted he didn't even ask his name.

The prisoner: | was very sarcastic, and said to Gon-|

nell: “You Americans are saps. You're still in the war, and I'm out of it.” d I thougit Conneéll's answer was pretty good. He replied: : “You're such a hot Nazi, but it's lots of good you're going to do your country from now on.” :

Still Think They're ‘Supermen’

THE FIRST contacts of our troops with prisoners were extremely pleasant. So pleasant in fact that American officers got to worrying because the men found the Germans sb likable. But if you talk to them long enough you find in them the very thing we are fighting this war about —their superior-race complex, their smug belief in their divine right to run this part of the world. A little association with a German prisoner, like a little knowledge, is a bad thing, but if our troops could just have an opportunity to talk at length with the Germans I think they would come out of it madder than ever before at their enemy. In rumaging around one supply dump I came upon a stack of copies of a new booklet entitled “Tausend Worte Italienisch.” I picked up a handful, thinking to glean a little backyard Italian. It didn’t occur to me at the time that the booklets bbviously would be translating Italian into German. The Germans do things thoroughly, we have to admit. My handful of booklets turned out not to be several copies of the same thing, but a whole series of different booklets comprising a set of lessons for troops complete enough to give you a college course in Italian. It seems a prodigal way to use money, yet I suppose it does make things better if the Germans are able to insult their allies in their own language.

to apply for gasoline. “He explained to Kirby Whyte that he had a perfect record as a soldier —never had been in the guard house, etc. Then he cast his eye somewhat appraisingly around on beautiful war memorial headquarters and said shyly: ‘This is a legitimate place, isn't it?’

The Army Parades

FOLKS OUT around 53d and Winthrop got quite a thrill the other afternoon when four companies of soldiers dressed in fatigue uniforms passed by. The troops were singing and whistling military songs and, Bette Webber reports, seemed to be enjoying their hike. The Webbers’ dog barked at them a few times but quickly retired, seeing he was outnumbered. A soldier took a couple of running steps, playfully imitating a 5-year-old girl running along the sidewalk, and an officer yelled: ‘Hey, you in the blue coat, move to the rear.” The poor fellow did, marching all by himself. Farther down the street, the troops were ordered to rest. They smoked cigarets while the kids for blocks around gazed admiringly at them. Pretty soon they marched on and things quieted down in the neighborhood. But the kids still are talking about it

Don’t Hoard Points

HOUSEWIVES’ hoarding of rationing points until the last minute to use them has been driving our grocers half-crazy, Everyone comes pouring into the store at the same time. Now that housewives have had a chance to learn how to stretch their ration points, the grocers suggest they do their buying earlier in the ration period. . . . Seen on Massachusetts ave:. A young filling station “attendant chasing several gasoline coupons which the wind had whipped out of his hand. He dashed across the street and nearly was run down by autos three separate times. Finally, he returned to the station, triumphant. Chances are that he wouldn't have been as diligent in chasing a dollar bill.

By Raymond Clapper

The worst situation pertains to the Finnish secret police, whose chief is a small edition of Himmler. He uses terrorism on organizations and leaders friendly to our side. Anyone known to be friendly to the allies in an active way is likely to be intimidated, if not jailed on trumped-up charges. This attitude of the secret police is not typical, however, of the attitude of the Finnish people toward America. In fact, the average Finn looks on America as a real friend. The Finns feel that only America will be in a position, when Germany is defeated, to intercede at all for them against Russia's demands. They believe that America might succeed in softening the fate of Finland at the end of the war.

Allies Must Remove Fears

IT IS going to be difficult to satisfy the Finns, because they hate the Russians with a fanatical fire. The coals never burn out from one century to the next. Nothing Stalin could say would have the slightest effect, probably, as the Finns would believe nothing out of Moscow. The widespread fear of Russia is one big fact In Northern Europe that América and all of the allies must deal with in their psychological warfare now. as well as in making peace. If we start on the theory that everybody will be rational, nothing wiil be accomplished. We must find a way to cushion irrational fears. The answer will not lie in anything Russia says, but in the extent of the agreements that Russia is willing to accept to insure that the smaller countries can breathe. Russia Is not likely to be thwarted in having security in the Baltic. Stable peace in Northern Europe depends on how successfully this conflict can be adjusted at the end of the war. Above everything else, it must be remembered that we are dealing with a hatred which is several centuries old and which could cool only slowly at best.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

some real training. It has sent some 107 boys and girls into the armed forces and the letters come back from all over the world. I want to quote from one: “While it may not be an easy life I have now, it is a good one because I hope and think I am doing my part, though it is small, to keep places like Greer school going in the American way. I may not get back, but that is incidental . . . for through my small sacrifice I give others life and freedom. Eugene (Bosco) O'Rourke.” The second letter_comes to me from Great Britain and also shows the spirit of our boys. I quote it in part: “The voyage had been a hazardous one, and it sometimes seems to me as if men try to drown re-

membrance of peril and hardship by indulgence in|

* many grave temptatioms which beset them when they!

reach port. But this American crew had one com-~ mon impulse, to worship God Easter Sunday. “When speaking of this experience, my son said | that among the strange and wonderful happenings he had seen, and of which he had heard in his work, this was the most wonderful. Not only did they ask for directions, but as many as could, accepted it, some en going to the missions chapel, others farther

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ERT RIARR Ee EAI Cr a LE GIUNUUGIEHEEUE TEC IU REE SUCHE OE SU

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Lumber is one of the Northwest's biggest contributions te the victory drive. Many jobs are now filled by women, such as the neatly clad engineer of a millyard locomotive (upper right).

Northwest's Coming of Age Boosted by the

Hard Working Freights

One of the biggest ingredients of success in war is transportation. Trained soldiers, newly forged weapons, stacks of ammunition and food are useless until they are moved and moved again to points where they

are needed. Charles Lucey, who wrote “Smashing the Axis,”

the

description of industry at war, reveals in a new series, of which this article is the fifth, how the railroads are rolling the nation te victory.

By CHARLES T. LUCEY Times Special Writer

SEATTLE,

May 21.—It was one of those not-too-

private telephone conversations where you hear what one person is saying and try to construct the answers at the

other end of the line.

“We've got to get an engine for that logger tonight,

Jim,” west and a smart railroad operating man, was telling

his roundhouse boss. “What about 711? As things are today, they're holding too many in the shops, Jim. How long has 61 been in? They couldn't get her ready, eh? This 1239 is going down that way— maybe they could drop her down for a train of logs at Frederickson, then let her come into Tacoma. Wouldn't that do it?” He hung up, then called the dispatcher, “I talked with the roundhouse. We'll work it out, Lou.” e load is colossal, power (locomotives) is tight, but pressure for delivery for war is relentless. Always it means scratching to. find enough engines and freight cars. turning them about faster, getting them back into service quickly at the end of runs, stepping up engine .conditioning time in the roundhouses, There has been nothing like it in the Pacific Northwest since the Jim Hills and Jay Goulds drove their thousands of miles of flashing rails over the Rockies: Here a load of logs must be got out to Puget Sound to be sent down to the mills. The army needs lumber for training camps, and there's no time for delay. So is fought the home-front battle

of the rails. » s =»

Trains Serve Them All

THE NORTHWEST was built on timber. With more than 850 billion feet of standing timber in Oregon and Washington, it still has close to half the commercial lumber available in the United States. Forest products today are 65 to 70 per cent of outgoing traffic, and, with steel short, new uses are being found steadily for the giant Douglas fir and Ponderosa pine rolling out of here ‘to the whole country, But the big “Can-do” man, Henry J. Kaiser, came into the Northwest with huge shipyards. A war made the Flying Fortress a devastating striking force, and the Boeing plant at Seattle boomed. Aluminum plants were built on Grand Coulee and Bonneville hydroelectric power. Other war industries sprang up. Railroads were basic to the whole spectacular development. They hauled in tens of thousands of carloads of construction materials for these plants. When the plants were built they hauled materials for manufacturing—and it takes a trainload of steel for every Liberty ship the amazing Kaiser yards turn out. More manpower was needed — recruited in New York, the Carolinas, Oklahoma and elsewhere—and it had to be brought in by rail. Tens of thousands of new workers were demanding housing. In the: Portland-Vancouver, Wash, area alone 50,000 units were built for 135,000 persons; again the railroads delivered, carrying 10,000 carloads of building materials into these hot spots. Into the Pacific Northwest come five major railroads—the Great Northern, Union Pacific, the Mil-

Your Blood : Is Needed

May quota for Red Cross Blood Plasma Center — 5800 donors. Donors so far this month— 2221. Yesterday's quota—200. Yesterday's donors—131.

You can help meet the quota by calling LI-1441 for an appointment or going to the center, second floor, Chamber of Commerce building, N. Me tidigh gh: .

.

L. F. Donald, general manager of Milwaukee Lines

waukee, Union Pacific and Southern Pacific. The Spokane, Portland & Seattle, the last joined by the Northern Pacific and Great Northern, operates over a strategic Northwest war area, ” ” ”

All Work Together

ALL ARE CARRYING the load So vital to the Northwest's great part in fighting the war. And this is not easy railroading country. Grades in the Cascades are Stiff, curves sharp and tunnels long, and the transcontinental lines have the Rockies to fight as well. The railroads have left behind the dog-eat-dog brand of corporate thinking; the wrong kind of competition could hurt the war assignment and now you find cooperation instead. Every week or 10 days, in Seattle’s Rainer club, General Manager Donald of the Milwaukee Dixon of the Great Northern and Bartles of the Northern Pacific, sit down over a good Chinook salmon steak to talk over operating problems growing out of the war load—something that might have been strange indeed in other times. Into the Northwest, Henry Kaiser has brought a new kind of forest—a forest of “whirlies,” huge, red-orange cranes which reach high above the shipyards to swing on their bases and lift 100 tons of fabricated ship section into place and settle it before waiting riveters and welders. Steel for the big yards on the Columbia and Willamette rivers comes from mills as far away as Birmingham, Ala., and from Pittsburgh and Ohio, and often, so close is the margin between steel supply and shipbuilding, steel is fitted and in place within two or three hours after the railroads have rolled it into the shipyards. » ” ”

Delivers Goods

NOT LONG AGO a shipyard manager telephoned J. C. Carter, general freight and passenger agent of the S. P. &*S. at Portland. The yard had a cavioad of weiding rods en route West, and

if they weren't there by noon that day the present supply would be gone. Carter, with records showing every car coming out of St. Paul westwerd, knew he could put his hands on that particular car near Spokane in eastern Washington. The car rolled into the shioyards over a Union Pacific switch connection at 5 a. m. next morning. On touch-and-go cperation of this type, with unceasing demand for war production, the railroads must highball their freight every mile of the way across the continent. Each line must have freight rolling virtually on passenger schedule. Engines must be steamed up and crews ready to go at division points. There must be no time lost in yards passing cars of needed steel from one rail line to another. : Pacific coast yards have set his-tory-making shipbuilding records. Aircraft carriers, oil tankers, Lib« erty ships, mine layers and ine vasion barges are rolling out for war. Kaiser's Oregon Shipbuilding Co. at Portland delivered 17 vessels in March. The railroads must perform before the shipyards perform. They are doing it every day of the year out here. The Spokane, Portland & Seattle alone is carrying 75 carloads of steel daily into Portland. To Northwest aluminum plants the railroads bring bauxite and aluminum from as far away as Mobile. Manpower shortages cur= tailed Northwest coal mine operations; now Eastern coal makes od long haul over the Rockies. - : y

The Kaiser shipbuilding yard in Portland, Ore., needs one trainioad of steel for each Liberty ship.

alone will get 200,000 tons this year, ® » » VIRTUAL ' CLOSING of the Panama Canal to commercial traffic put an unprecedented load on northern transcontinental lines into the Northwest, as it did on the southern transcontinental roads, and these figures on lumber point that story: In the territory west of the Cascades in Oregon and Washington in 1940 there were produced 73% billion feet of lumber, nearly half of which moved by water. In 1941 some 83 billion feet came out of the forests, onethird of which moved by water. Last year 8% billion feet were produced, but only 15 per cent moved ov water. More than 32,000 trainloads of lumber and forest products will be loaded in the Pacific Northwest this year—not far from 100 trainloads a day. Fir timbers, used with metal connectors, have taken the place of steel even in such heavy construction as hangars, and what the railroads will haul out this year will save 2000 tons of steel. As cantonment building slackens other uses are found for wood. Plywood, made from fir, is becoming an increasingly vital war product. Huge army camps, airfields and navy supply stations dot this area, and supplying these and moving troops has been a tremendous new load for the G. N., U. P, N. P, S. P. and the Milwaukee to carry Here in the Northwest are unloading and embarkation ports for huge cargoes going out to Alaska.

RELEASE SOCIALITE BANKER FROM JAIL

MIAMI, Fla, May 21 (U. P).— Stephen Peabody Jr, New York banker and socialite, defendant in a separate maintenance suit filed by his third wife, Mrs. Harriet Peabody, last Tuesday, was free today without bond on an order by Circuit Court Judge George E. Holt. Mrs. Peabody declared in her suit that her husband refused to support her and nad withdrawn her $100 a month allowance. She said Pea-

body told her he would remove all his assets from the jurisdiction of Florida's courts if she sued him and quoted him as saying, “I don’t care if you starve.” ; Peabody was arrested here yesterday upon his return from Cuba. He was released, after spending several hours in county jail, to Cmdr. J. V. Dalbora, USCG, Peabody's commanding officer in the temporary coast guard reserve, of which he is a member,

REPORT NEW SHIPS MEETING DEMANDS

LOS ANGELES, May 21 (U.P) .— American shipbuilding is turning the tide of war, and ° delivery of supplies to all fronts is on schedule, Rear Adm. Frances E. Barry, second ranking British naval officer in the United States, said on an inspection tour. “The American construction, combined with British and Canadian output now is providing sufficient tonnage to amply supply all allied troops,” the admiral declared. “For a while the losses at sea were extremely serious. Our troops were not getting sufficient supplies for an offensive war,” he said. “For a number of Months now, that has changed, today we have

Power from Grand Coulee dam has given the state of Washington many new war industries that must be serviced by rail.

A Northern Pacific list shows almost every conceivable kind of product being shipped — brass, bronze, grinding wheels, creosote, cranes, copper, furnaces, generators, even whole carloads of cigaret papers, o ”

Cargoes Meted Out

ALL OF THESE things the railroads must lay down at the docks in time to. load waiting ships ‘without delay, but not so soon that there will be congestion. Here is where the army transportation corps, headed by Maj. Gen. Charles P. Gross, comes into the job of directing the nation's biggest rail traffc movement. From a so-called holding and reconsignment depot at Pasco, Wash., trainloads of export cargo are sent into Seattle, Portland and Tacoma only as needed. For example, if a shipment to Alaska gets over the Rockies three weeks before a ship is ready it's unloaded and held at Pasco until just before the ship reaches port, and thus heavy port congestion —costly in supplying the A. E. PF. in world war I—is averted. Longer, heavier trains demand more trackage. The Milwaukee is lengthening 10 sidings between

Red Tape Helps Hares Multiply

TRENTON, N. J, May 21 (U. P.) —Rabbits thrive on red tape, & victory gardener wrote Leonard Dreyfuss, state civilian defense director, today in a letter rich in pathos. Last winter, the gardener, planning a fine food crop, discovered a large buck rabbit on his plot in Mountain Lakes. Realizing the rabbit might eat. his produce, he wrote Dreyfuss for information on how he could get rid of the rabbit legally. By the time a reply arrived the buck was being followed : around by five little rabbits, Dreyfuss told him he could get a permit from the state fish and game commission to trap or shoot rabbits doing damage on his property, provided such a permit does not conflict with local ordinances which prohibit shooting, The gardener wrote to the state house for a permit. The state house mailed him an application for a permit. Before he made out the application he took another census and counted 165 rabbits gamboling ‘about his property. , His latest letter to Dreyfuss asked for information on how to get a permit for a machinegun,

LIP READING CONTEST TO BE HELD TUESDAY

The seventh annual lip reading

tournament for city high school students will be held at 3:45 p. m. Tuesday in the student center at Technical high school. A silver cup will be awarded to the school represented by the winning student.

Those competing are Cora Wool-

bright, Technical; Eugene Bailey, Manual; Lucy Jesse, Howe; Barbara Stephens, Shortridge; JeanDelores Taylor, |

2 Alumina, from Alabama's bauxe ite, rolls into Reynolds Metals Co, plant in Longview, Wash., to be processed into pure aluminum,

Avery, Idaho, and Seattle to let 125-car trains go “in the hole” instead of the 75-car limit now necessary. Track labor is scarce and housing for it scarcer. This road had to go into one town, rent all available vacant houses and turn them over to its men, Box cars have been made over into bunk cars, kitchen and come missary units. With money flowing freely in the Northwest (a shortage of dollar bills was reported in Porte land, where it's not unusual to see day laborers peel off $50 bills for a drug store purchase), pase senger trains are jammed. Porte land-Seattle trains, once comforte ably ‘filled with 200 persons, now carry 900. Reservations must be made two weeks ahead, and those who can’t get seats stand, The Northwest has gone to war —and the railroads with it. From Puget Sound to the Rockies there's a sweep of roaring home-front you must almost see to believe.

Tomorrow—The gondolas roll with ore,

TO FEATURE 3 STARS .

Three famous stars of radio and movies will appear at the war bond military ball next Thursday in the coliseum. The event will climax

the May bond drive, sponsored by

the American Legion. Constance Bennett, Cliff (Ukele Ike) Edwards, and Lt. Charles Far« rell will head the program that is - expected to draw 17,000 spectators, Purchase of any war bond entitles the buyer to a ticket. All members of the cast, include ing Miss Bennett, Mr. Edwards, and Lt. Farrell will make volunteer appearances on behalf of the drive, Reports from state headquarters today showed that 45 per cent of the May quota had been reached during the first half of the month, An appeal for renewed effort was made by Wray E. Fleming, state ade ministrator, and C. U, Gramelspach« er, state commander of the Legion, as the deadline for meeting the $19,500,000 quota approached.

HOLD EVERYTHING

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