Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 December 1943 — Page 1

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WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1943

FORECAST : Fair and slightly colder tonight; tomorrow mostly fair and continued cold.

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Entered as Second-Class Matter at : Indianapolis, Ind. Issued dally w exce nday

yesterday, was often called “

Whether he was, no one knows for sure. But there is no doubt that he was one of the two or three richest men in the state—a

millionaire many times over.

He started out with what many would call a silver spoon in his mouth. His father, Joseph I. Irwin, was a successful banker and Will Irwin and his sister, Mrs, Linnie I. Sweeney, inherited a sizeable

estate.

But Mr. Irwin did not rest on the fruits of his father’s labor.

added to, increased and multiplied

no one outside the immediate family can estimate, was one of the largest in this section of the country. Mr. Irwin was a banker who did not make his money out of other people's misfortunes. He made his money by backing people with

ideas and inventions.

He always said that he liked to see other people get ahead. And he helped plenty of them. There is,

Clessie Cummins. Mr. Irwin al. lowed Mr, Cummins to manufacture hubs for artillery in the garage at the Irwin home during world war I and when Mr, Cummins later developed a Diesel engine, Mr. Irwin went “all out” backing him. They formed the Cummins Engine Co. which today is one of Columbus’ largest industries,

# ” » Uncanny Judge MR. IRWIN was an “uncanny” Judge of human nature. In making investments, he studied carefully the men at the top of the company ‘involved. He always said that he would never put money into a company unless he knew that the men at the top were honest and capable, His friends say he had the “Midas” touch; everything. he turned to gold. They cannot recount a single instance of a business investment in which he Jost money, They say he never gambled; that - while a business venture might have looked like a gamble to an outsider that Mr. Irwin had “made such a thorough study of’ the situation that he knew the investment was bound to be good. a ¥ nn’

Trimmed Staff

"WHEN HE bought a corn starch company at Granite City, II. now ‘the Union Starch and Refining Co. with offices at Columbus, he had decided that the company was losing money because the office force was three times the size needed. He trimmed .down the office force by twothirds and the company started making money, Another time he bought into a company at Evansville that manufactures baby foods and medicines. It wasn't long after that company had come under his influence until the value of the stock had jumped from $40 per share ‘to $140. He was a genius at administration, Born at Columbus, he made that city his home throughout his life, despite his wide financial interests throughout the country, And his influence upon the town of Columbus was a stabilizing one. “The townspeople had no fear of a bank failure during the depression and Mr. Irwin continued to fend money during that period to anyone he felt deserving. He also was hesitant about calling loans. ” ” "

‘Big’ Banker

HE WAS A “BIG” banker, not a “sharp” banker. He was lenient in granting loan extensions. Business and helping people

{Continued on Page $—Column ?»

SKATERS WELCOME AT LAKE SULLIVAN

While the rest of Indianapolis

hearts of the city’s ice-skating coterie by announcing the opening of

Night skating won't get under way until tomorrow night, but all other fixtures, including fireplaces

Irwin Made Fortune

Aiding ‘Idea’ Men

Increased ‘and Multiplied His Inheritance by

Backing Promising Inventors.

By EARL RICHERT William G. Irwin, Columbus financier who died here

{shortly after 11 a. m. yesterday

‘lother drop nearer the zero mark {tonight but predicted slowly rising

yesterday blew over, thus easing the

—- igrees late yesterday, temperatures

Indiana’s richest man.”

RAL, HIGHWAY AIR TRANSPORT CRISIS FEARED

‘New Equipment Must Be , Manufactured Now'— Truman Group. WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (U. P.).—

He until his fortune, the size of which

for example, his former chauffeur, " .

RITES ARE SET FOR W. 6. IRWIN

{nation today that it has coasted to {the limit on its pre-war reserves

The Truman committee warned the|

of transportation facilities and that’ replacement programs must be launched immediately if a disastrous collapse is to be avoided. “If we act now, an impending crisis may be avoided by means more satisfactory than any measures which could be takén once the crisis is actually upen us,” the senate’s special war investigatihg committee declared in. a report on transportation problems. "The “report paid. high tribute to the transportation job so far accomplished, and said it couldn't have been done if there hadn't been pre-war reserves as well as splendid war-time conservation and utilization,

Services to Be Conducted At! Columbus

Tomorrow. (Other Irwin Stories, Page 13)

Funeral services for Will G. Irwin, financier, industrialist, philanthropist and Republican leader, who died at his Indiana National bank office here yesterday, will be held at Columbus, Ind. tomorrow. Services, in charge of Dr, Thomas K. Smith, the pastor, will be held at 3 p. m. in the Christian church, Burial will be at the City cemetery at Columbus. Priends may call at the FlaniganReed & Hull funeral home at Columbus until 10 a. m. tomorrow, From 10 a. m. until the time of the | services the body will lie in state at! the church. Mr. Irwin, 77, was fatally stricken

after he arrived from his home in

Columbus. He was dead before medical ald could reach him,

{MERCURY TUMBLES T0 4 ABOVE ZERO

Cold to Continue Tonight,

‘Warmer’ Tomorrow. LOCAL TEMPERATURES

lam.... 8 Sam. 4 2a.m,.... 8 Yam... ee 4 3am, ... 7 10am.... 9 4a.m..... 7 lam... 12 ‘Sa.m.,... 8 12 (Noom).. 14 6a.m..... 5 12 (Noon).. 14 am.... 4

| emergency, was found to have heen

‘restricted freight ear prbduction to

I “production

Manpower Scarce

But, it added, the transportation burden is increasing. Equipment is wearing out. Manpower is growing scarcer, ‘ oT Point hy point, the committee re- | viewed thie situation affecting all types of transportation {facilities— rail, highway, air, barge and pipeline. . It found the rail, highway and air transport outlook most critical, The barge program, conceived in

“so delayed by endless conferences” that its benefits were negligible. Only the pipeline program received plaudits, “Pipeline transportation of petroleum was early and properly visualized by the petroleum administrator for war as a solution to some of the major domestic petroleum-transpor-tation problems,” the report said. “As a result, the petroleum-trans-|-portation problem has been greatly alleviated.” The committee found that railroads have received during 1042 and will receive during 1943 only a fraction of their estimated equipment requirements,

Need Freight Cars

Freight cars present a similar problem, and the committee lashed out at the WPB for stopping, without notice freight car production jon April 14 1942. The WPB order

only two types. The committee said ‘was delayed several months before railroads discovered which builders would be permitted to build what types of cars.” As for the future, the committee was pleased~to note that material inventories have now reached the stage where WPB has authorized a return to all-steel construction "so a substantia] increase in the number of freight cars of better quality, is now possible.” As for passenger cars, the com-

Indianapolis shivered in the coldest weather of the season today as| the mercury tumbled to a new low of four degrees above zero with no relief in sight until late tomorrow. The weather bureau forecast an-

temperatures tomorrow, perhaps ending the cold wave by Friday, Fresh snow flurries that were headed toward Indianapolis early

strained traffic situation, Most of the ice had worn off the main travel streets by last night and traffic

* After reaching a high of 19 de-

started dropping rapidly at 7 p. m. and went down hourly all night, reaching four degrees at 7 a. m. The cold wave gripped the entire middle and eastern states with freezing temperatures recorded in Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, and the Carolinas,

NEARLY 40,000 POLES "SHIFTED FROM IRAN

LONDON, Dec. 15 (U, P)—A mass transfer of 40,000 Polish refugees from Iran to East Africa, South

today. The Polish refugees found their way to Iran after the German sweep through their homeland.

BILL OF RIGHTS HONORED

MT. VERNON, N. ¥.-Dec. 15 (U.

TIMES FEATURES 1 ON INSIDE PAGES

+ 10{1n Indpls. .... § errnes . 20 Millett 14 aresny B ‘Movies

Comics ......

*vpeas

3 Curr 15.

awe a1

were held to-

,) Special services were day at Saint Paul's church, Esst-| chester—the national shrine of

ler sesrans i :

{ (Continued on Page 8—Column {)

was moving normally again today.|.

| (Continued on Page S—Column 8)

Ernie Couldn't Stand the Quiet of Naples So He Went Back to War, Knee Deep in Mud

Hoosier Heroes—

WALTER VONNEGUT HELD BY GERMANS

Fortress Navigator Forced To Jump During Raid. Prisoner

LT. WALTER A. VONNEGUT, navigator of the Flying Fortress, a “prisoner

“The Last Straw,” is of war in Ger- : many following & mission Nov, 5 over German

w h e reabouts was received last night by his wife, Mrs. Helen McParland Vonnegut, 1215 N. Ewing st, and his Lt Vonnegut aunt, Mrs, Daniel I. Glossbrenner of Rainbow farm; Oakjandon, Lt. Vonnegut, who is 21, was re- . ported missing after his second mission since ~eaching England.

NAZIS ‘SHOOT

By HELEN RUEGAMER . FOR TWO MONTHS Cpl. Manley Afikney battled the Germans "Phrough the Sicilian campaign and into Italy he blasted his way with a machine gun. Sometimes he was forced to retreat. Once he was trapped behind the Nazi lines, only to slip through under cover of darkness.

Oct. 5 when a bullet from a German tank pierced his abdomen during the advance on Benevento. in Italy. Today the 25-year-old machine gun corporal will be awarded the purple heart while he sits in his wheel chair at Billings General hospital,

28. His home is in Lansing, Mich, and that's where he'd like to be at Christmastime. But spending the holidays in the hospital may be one more sacrifice for ‘him—that is, unless Indian apolis will make his Christmas an enjoyable one through The Indianapolis ‘Times Christmas fund and War Hospitals campaign, * =» ON AUG. 27 Cpl. Ankney was in Sicily atop San Russo ridge, 1200 feet of rock above the Tyrrens hian sea. In the face of a flerce German counter-attack his unit retreated toward the ocean and Messina. Suddenly the men found them-

(Continued on Page. S3—Column n

SEE MARSHALL SELECTION NEAR, |

Expected to Be Named as Allied Commander Upon FDR's Return.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (U. P). —President Roosevelt's forthcoming return to the ®White House was expected today to produce the longawaited announcement of “Gen. George C. Marshall's new role in the war—commanding ‘general of the allied attack on Germany in Western Europe. While the date of Mr. Roosevelt's return to Washington was a heavily guarded secret, there was widespread expectation in military circles that the Marshall announce ment was not far away.

Eisenhower Original Choice

Best information here was that Marshall, when he takes over active direction of what is expected to be the biggest allied operation of the war, will retain his post as army chief of staff. He would transfer most of his chief of staff duties to an acting ‘chief, probably Lt. Gen. Joseph ‘T. McNarney, now deputy chief of staff. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, allied commander-in-chief in North Africa, ‘was the original choice for the post as acting chief of staff, according to authentic versions of the impending staff changes. Eisenhower, however, was understood to have asked to be continued

McNarney consequently was picked for acting chief. He is a 50-year-old air officer, a native of Pennsyl-

He and two members of his qwn crew, Lt. H. T. Brown, bombar-

States Canada permanent joint de-

fense board,

But he kept on going—until -

He arrived at Billings on Nov,

Cpl. Manley Ankney . . . a bullet from a German tank found its mark.

and potential crime. Ernie is. a name in the Clothe-

And he's only 11.

WAR GOST, AND TINE EXCEEDS LAST ONE

Casualties Run Much Higher. . In Present Conflict.

By UNITED PRESS

The European war entered its 1567th- day today and so outlasted world war I-at a cost in blood and human misery and national wealth that already has dwarfed the catastrophe of a generation ago. On July 28, 1914, the 'AustroHungarian empire declared war on Serbia and four days later Germany handed a similar declaration. to Russia, committing the world to its then greatest war in history, Four years and 106 days afterward, at 11 a. m. French standard time (6 a, m. Indianapolis Time’, world war I ended in an armistice. Wilhelm Hohenzollern was in exile and the beaten German and Austrian armies were stumbling homeward, leaving 2,973,000 of their dead on the battlefields with 5,152,115 allied victims, World war II began at dawn on Sept. 1, 1939, when Adolf Hitler

(Continued on “Page 5 Column 5

JUDGE STUDIES PLEA IN BABY DEATH CASE

Judge W. D. Bain of criminal court has taken under advisement a petition seeking the release from jail of the teen age couple charged with murdering their newly-born infant. A hearing on the petition was completed yesterday when attorneys for the couple sought to prove that the evidence against the defendanis was not strong enough to hold them in jail without bond on a first degree murder charge. The defendants are Betty Jean

Long, 16, and George Lowe Jr, 18.

By ERNIE PYLE

: ‘an outfit T had known In England a year ago last AT THE FRONT-LINE IN ITALY, Dec. 15— _ fall, made up largely of men from the Carolinas and “ eastern Tennessee.

(By Wireless).—It had been my intention to ‘work back into the war gradually by doing maybe a couple

columns from that time. This Tegiment shoots - 165-millimeter howitzers.

‘By WILLIAM CRABB THIS IS A true story of our city's ilis-poverty, siiect; Selingusney

[Boy With Plenty of Spunk Needs Clothe-A-Child Aid

FEY

ga

It is a story of one of our “dead end” kids, :

A-Child files, His address is the

Juvenile Detention home, His family lives across the tracks,

» » 8 =» ERNIE WAS born in a tworoom house, His father was a poor provider, His mother Is crippled. Four months ago the father deserted the family, Ernie has four brothers and sisters, He's a very bright lad, And almost from the time he learned to walk he had only one ambition—to look after “Mom.” This broiight - him out on the

(List of Doners, Page Five)

|

: ‘defenders out of Radomisl,

streets - late at night selling papers, shining shoes. And because he was so small—too small to be roaming after dark—his path has crossed that of the police repeatedly: ) Recently . the juvenile eourt judge saw that Ernie had a future if he could be taken out of his environment. He sent him to the detention home until he could be sent away to school. But the institutions are crowded and it looks like Ernie will have to stay at the home for some time. But he has the freedom of the place, he.can go on errands and to see his “mom,” because he is trustworthy and honest, . -» » ERNIE'S MOTHER and sisters

“and brothers are still his chief

concern, { They live crowded together with the grandmother, They have half enough to eat, They have very little clothing. ~The other day was Ernie's birthday. At the home they bought him . a pair of gloves. Ernie is proud as anything of those . gloves, He washes them every other day, The other boys at the dentention home can't touch them, Clothe-A-Child wants to help Ernie, wants to get him a new coat, new shoes, plenty of underwear and socks and a warm eap, ‘to go with that pair of gloves, But we have to take care of the brothers and sisters, too.

That's Ernie’s request.

Some of you way remembes We

INO- SECRET TREATIES MADE, EDEN REPORTS

" LONDON, Det. 15 (U. P)— Secretary

KS’ AT KIEV: ~ ALLIES BOMB GREEK AIRBASE

Wooley Soldier Stopped a Bullet For America—What of His Christmas?

Von Mannstein

Army in Ukraine Gamble;

Russ Lose

LONDON, Dec. 15 (U, thony Eden said today that

resources,

ter Joseph Goebbels said toda

MOSCOW, Dee, 15 (U.P | stein threw the cream of his ‘nothing gamble for Kiev tof his month-long: counter-

toc

capital, Two days after against the Kiev salient migl

key communications hub from

{ llike the spokes of a wheel.

German n troops some 12

BOMBERS POUND ATHENS | BASES

. ’

300 Planes Rake + Raks Rirdromes British Gain in Battle Along Adriatic.

By C. R, CUNNINGHAM United Press Slant Correspondent ALLIED HEADQUARTERS, Alglers, Dec, 16.—~More than 300 alled warplanes, the strongest fleet ever sent against the Invasion-

attack on the Athens area yesterday while British troops slowly gained the upper hand in a bloody battle on the Italian Adriatic coast, it was disclosed today. Destructive © bomb loads were rained down on three Athens air-| fields and on shipping in néarby Piraeus harbor. The attackers were

and Liberators which fought their way through some 35 German in-

tercepting planes.

Never before had such a big fleet

d on Page 8—Column §) ~ .

HL

‘On the War Fronts

(Dec, 15, 1943)

ITALY—British 8th army gains in heavy fighting on Adriatic coast; allied and German big guns duel ‘on 5th army front; record bombing fleet blasts German airdromes and port area at Athens,

RUSSIA Renewed Cerman coun-‘ter-offensive captures Radomisl rail junction 48 miles west of Kiev,

PACIFIC—More than 100 allied bombers drop 248 tons of bombs on Gasmata. Marine paratroops extend Bougainville beachhead.

JUGOSLAVIA—Partisans defeat axis troops at Dalmatian port of Zara.

*_ By UNITED PRESS The allies today were believed marshalling powerful air, sea and ground forces for an early assault on Rabaul, keystone of Japan's

crumbling Southwest Pacific defense line, Military experts anticipate the campaign for that formidable enemy base on New Britain island

BULLETINS P.).—Foreign Secrefary An-

for defeating Germany would “in the very near future” demand of the allies the employment of all of their

LONDON, Dec. 15 (U. P.).—Nazi Propaganda Minis-

collapse of Germany had failed and a “desperate” invasion of the continent from the West is now inevitable.

48 miles west of the Ukrainian reporting that the

{sians acknowledged a serious setback in the loss of Radomisl,

,000 strong paced by

jittery Balkans, made a smashing;

fighter-escorted Flying Fortresses |

struck at four separate targets I

Allies Are Believed Massing | Forces for Rabaul Offensive

will be undertdken soon, perhaps] 0

Risks Cream of

Radomusl.

the Tehran conference plans

y the allied hope for political

Marshal Fritz von Manne German army into an all or lay after the strongest blow ffensive threw the Russian

German onslaught it have been stifled, the Rus-

which seven highways radiate

150 tanks, [won Radomisl in the greatest single attack of the entire counter-offensive. The victory lincreaséd greatly the Gers man ability to maneuver tanks and inlaniey for continued assatits. Military sources expected Mann. | stein to move quickly to capitalize ‘on the seizure of the focal road center in ‘hope of wiping out the Soviet : salient, looping westward from the Dnieper and recapturing Kiev by the end of the year. : His prodigal expenditure of men and machines was regarded as a supreme effort to reducathe ignom-

Fa

"my UNITED PRESS The- British broadcast Moscow reports toflay that the

Russ army had joined its Krem« enchug and Cherkasi bridgeheads, and more than #000 Germans were killed in the battle for Cher-

kasi, which fell to the Russians yesterday, iny of his retreat through the

Ukraine and restore the Nazi win. ter line along the middle Dnieper, Apparently realizing that he no | longer could rely solely on his ine {fantry and artillery to repulse Rus« sian blows, Mannstein was reported - to have introduced new variations of tank tactics west of Kiev, Formerly he threw all his tanks !into the attack, leaving few if any {in reserve. Recently he has been using only part of his armor for the assault, leaving & considerable proportion in reserve, and burying some near the front lines for use as firing posts. * Send Out Decoys The army organ Red Star said the Germans also were sending. out small units of tanks to decoy larger Russian armorct groups into the path of fire from tanks buried near the infantry lines. New details of the capture of Cherkasl, Dniper river si \ | indicated that a sizeable German garrison - had been enveloped for some time and was wiped out in the final storming of the town, : Bitter street fighting marked the last stage of the Cherkasi battle, front reports said. Stiff resistance by Germans entrenched in symmetrical blocks of stone houses obliged the Russians to fight through the town block hs block,

|heavier as the fleet nears the cene ter of Japanese resistance.. :