Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 April 1944 — Page 17

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‘an actual artillery. The Germans shell us at intervals throughout the day and night, "but usually there are just one or two shells at a time, with long quiet periods in between. The other night, however, they threw a real barrage at us. It was short, but boy, it was hot. : Shells were toming faster than count them. One guess is as good as anther, I'd estimate that in two minutes they put 150 shells in our area. 1 was in bed, in a stone house, when it started, and 1 stayed in bed, too, simply because I was afraid to get up. I just reached out and put my steel helmet on, and covered my head with a quilt, and lay there all drawn up in a knot.

Burying With Bulldozers

SHELLS CAME past the corner of the house so close their mere passage would shake the windows. A shell that close doesn't whine or whistle, It just goes “whish-bang!” The whole house was rattling and trembling from constant nearby explosions. The Noise under a barrage is muddling and terrifying. Of .eourse we had glues, but our own house came through unscat That little barrage seemed awful to us and it was

.awful, but just think—we had maybe 150 shells around

us in two minutes, but I know of cases where our ‘guns have fired incessantly hour after hour until:

.we have put 30,000 shelis in a single German area.

We have had reports that the Germans were burying their dead with bulldozers, there were so many of them. I had lunch with one of our artillery batteriés which shoots the big Long Toms. They've been in

Inside Indianapo

THAT ONCE POPULAR gag remark, “See you in the funny papers,” has come true for several of Indianapolis’ leading citizens, headed by none other than Hizzoner, the mayor. They haven't exactly made the funny papers, but they are depicted as characters ii in a comic magazine —the May issue of “Capt. Marvel's Adventures.” The hero, who switches himself from his normal role of a boy, Billy Batson to Capt. Marvel by the simple expedient of saying, “Shazam,” flies to Indianapolis where be is greeted by “Gilbert Forbes, WFBM news announcer.” After a tour of the city, in which he meets an “Indianapolis Times sports writer,” and in which the only car on monument circle is shown as going around the wrong way, Capt. Marvel goes to hear a concert by the Indianapolis symphony, “conducted by Fabien Sevitzky.” Gunmen rob the symphony boxoffice and the captain traps them when they get on the Indianapolis speedway. The comic book then shows Mayor Tyndall (a pretty good likeness of him, foo) praising the great hero. Shucks: why can't we get famous enough to get in the comics?

Gets Navy Commission

TOM BILLINGS, a traffic engineer for the phone company, has been commissioned a naval ensign. Tom reports at Hollywood, Fia., April 25... . One of our readers out on Legrande ave. writes in to suggest the idea of establishing crosswalks in the middle of downtown blocks, commenting that “it might help save a lot of shoe leather—walking all the way to a street corner just to walk half way back on the other side of the street.” Crossing only at intersections may waste a little shoe leather, but it also may save a few fives. ... A motorist calls to complain about our Shortridge students’ trafic habits. He says they

This Is America

KALAMAZOO, Mich., April 6 ~The last time I saw Hugh Kiino he sat on a plank bench in a mess hall at the Jerome, Ark, relocation center and talked about the plight of our 70,000 Nisei, while his wife, Ruth, threw a farewell party for the little friends of their 2-year-old son Carl The Kliinos were leaving Jerome that afternoon to try their luck in “a Caucasion world containing an undue number of thoughtless persons inclined to feel that “a Japs a Jap, and I don't care whether he's an American citizen or not.” This morning I visited Hugh and Ruth Carl again, in their home here. Hugh was asleep after a night's work, but Ruth insisted on awakening him. I had come here to get an answer to a question I posed last year, after visiting Jerome: “What will happen to Kiino?" This report should be preceded by the reminder that Hugh is a Nisei who failed to be employed by the F. B. 1. only because he never troubled to learn the Japanese tongue. Siz Nisei in Crew HUGH NOW f{s: foreman of the cake mixing department in a good-sized bakery. He has six Jap-anese-Americans working under him on the night shift. Five are members of his family—his niece and Ruth's father, brother, sister and brother-in-law. Ruth's brother has enlisted and is waiting to be called into service. The brother-in-law has been classified 1-A, and expects to be called any day for pre-induc-tion physical examination. Hugh majored in political science in college and Ruth in bacteriology. They had no experience as domestic servants. That is why they did not stay long in their first position in Jackson, though their employer wanted them to stay. t Neither did Hugh know anything about baking. But he caught on fast. Before I saw Hugh here, I talked with two officials of the bakery. “He's 100 per cent in every way,” they told me. “A good worker, He's doing a job for which usually - we use somebody with five or six years of experience.” Hugh's employers had quite a bit of trouble awhile ago about their Japanese-American help. They had

WASHINGTON, Wednesday.~I look back on my visit to the Canal Zone as the time when Miss Thompson and myself were most steadily on the go. We had our headquarters at the home of Governor and Mrs, Glen Edgerton, but I think we must have been : most unsatisfactory guests. We left the house so early each morning that our hosts did not say“good morning” to us until the afternoon, and when we came in at night, we were so weary that we would say “good night” and go to bed at once, : In, our first morning, we went by plane to the Atlantic side of the isthmus, where - we visited army and navy hospitals, took an a ‘interesting drive to see various military activities, and lunched with some enlisted men who were going through a course in jungle warA Ey Wk We Fy

»

Never Touched Him

THEY TOLD ot one soldier who was standing in ditch the other day with one foot up on the bank. 88 shell went right between his legs, bored into of the ditch, blew an artillery rangeer all to pieces, and never scratched the fellow. But after it was over, he was so scared he was sick

shell they ever fired when they hit Africa, in 1942, they chalked a message — the kind you've seen in photographs—saying “Christmas Greetings to Hitler, and all put their names on it. They sent the shell over, and immediately the Germans sent one back which exploded so close to the gun-pit it wounded seven of the 12 men who had chalked their names on the American shell. From that day to this, that crew won't chalk anything on a shell.

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THREATENS TO BLOCK PAY IN

Welfare Appointment Is Not Legal.

Dudley A. Smtih, state personnel director, today warned the Marion

complies with the laws in its recent - appointment of Arthur E. Wooden of Madison, as county welfare director, his department would not certify payment of Mr. Wooden's salary. Mr, Smtih, in a letter to Harper J. Ransburg, welfare board president, said that if the board would

able reasons for the board's elimi-

One day an army photographer came around to e some pictures of this gun crew firing. He asked em to chalk one of those Hitler messages on the shell. The crew obliged and he took the picture. But what the photographer doesn’t know is that the shell

was never fired. After the photographer left, they carried it up the hillside, dug a hole and buried it. d

lis By Lowell Nussbaum

bunch up and converse on street corners near the school. And then, without looking, he adds, they amble unconcernedly across the street making passing motorists’ hair startd on end. Well, Shortridge students aren't the only folks that do that. A good many other pedestrians do likewise, And that's one of the reasons Indianapolis has such a high traffic toll. , . . Mail delivery to’ our fighting forces may be pretty difficult at times but you'll have to hand it to the army and naval postal services for keeping on trying. Back last October, George Saas mailed a Christmas package to Lt. R. K. Walker, U. 8. N. R,, whose medical office used to be on 46th near College, George has received a V-mail letter, dated March 21, saying the package had just caught up with Lt. Walker, who is in a mobile hospital base in the South Pacific. The candy in the package probably was a bit stale alter traveling for five and a half months,

Our Airline Situation ADD THINGS we never realized before: Indian-

. : fare department, will receive the! apolis has more street railway vehicles than there; ’ are airliners covering the country: A brochure on,|$9800 maximum permitted for the

“Our Airlines—Today and Tomorrow,” reprinting a series of aviation articles from the Wall Street Journal, contains the information that the various airlines operate a total of only 170 passenger planes in domestic service over the country. Indianapolis Railways has almost that many trackless trolleys—162— not to mention 130 streetcars and 128 busses. . .,. Now that they have engine No. 9, the first Allison engine to fly an army plane, the Allison division of G. M. is trying to get back engine No. 10—the first to pass the type test and to be accepted officially as available for fighter plane installation. It is being used in instructional work at a Kansas air fleld It was this engine that made possible development of such fighter planes as the Aircobra Lightning, Mustang and Warhawk. Eventually, Allison would like to establish a museum containing several such noteworthy engines.

By S. Burton Heath

discharged two inefficient workers, who went around,

telling that the bakery was replacing Americans with Japanese. A number of retail dealers stopped buying the bakery's products. “Hugh was very broadminded about it,” the manager told me. “He said if things got worse they would slip out quietly. He didn't want to jeopardize our business, He said he did have faith enough in the sportsmanship of the American people to believe that, if they knew the facts, they would give the Japanese-Americans fair and just treatment.”

Whispering Dies Down

THE BAKERY stood by its guns. The local ministerial and teachers’ associations, and many of the better people, backed the bakery and Hugh's group. Gradually the whispering campaign died down. Its one unfortunate result was that Julia Dekuzaku, Ruth's sister, who had been cn the day shift, had to be let go. “The other girls all bawled when we had to let Julia go,” the manager told me. She now has

.been re-hired on the night shift.

There still is at least some anti-Japanese-American feeling here. I heard it expressed by two taxicab drivers, one who took me to the bakery and one who took me to Hugh's house. But it is directed against a class—against persons of Japanese extraction—and not against these individuals. Everybody assured me that folks went out of their way to be nice to Hugh and Ruth and Carl. “We have been accepted in every place and under every situation,” Ruth summarized it, There is one fly in the ointment, Hugh is a member of the Bakery and Confectionery Workers International Union of America, A. F. of L. Most of his fellow workers have applied. But their cards have not come through. The Central Trades Councit is interesting itself in the matter, and presumably the bakery local is waiting for instructions,

Even this may prove to be for the best. It has)

led such persons as the ¥, M. C. A's industrial secretary, the pastor of Hugh's church, a young lawyer who is counsel for the Red Cross, and others like

them to take an interest in the situation. Hugh is

to appear before the council. The result may be

more intelligent acceptance of the right of these

American citizens to earn an honest living than would have come if the question never had been raised.

By Eleanor Rooseveit

‘Then, we flew back to the Pacific side and went to the Gorgas hogpital. This is for Canal Zone civilian workers and their families, but it also has quite a large number of military patients. We had

supper with some of the soldiers. y

In the evening, we drove out to a jungle base for a USO 'dance. Chaperons escort groups of girls out to the dances at these posts’in the jungle, and.the men take a great deal of trouble in their preparations for the dances. That evening, the room was decorated with palms and a good military orchestra was playing. _. Quite a number of the soldiers are from Puerto

Rico, and so, when I drew the numbers for the door]

prizes out of a helmet, I had to announce the numbers in Spanish as well as in English. First, the hostess said the Spanish numbers for me, but then I my courage and began to say them myself, receiving wild applause the first time, because the boys could tell I was a novice at the language.

{nation of 12 persons whose ratings ‘on the merit system list were higher | than that of Mr. Wooden, he would {be “happy to approve the appointment and certify the salary.” ! States Reasons “I regret to inform you that uner the state personnel law . . . I. am required to withhold pay roll certification of persons ‘who have

i not been established in their posi-

tions in accordance with provisions of the law,” Mr. Smith ‘said. The personnel director said the board had not submitted to his de- | partment any report on its reasons | for elimination of 12 other eligibles. Mr. Ransburg declined to say whether the board would consider supplying the report asked by Mr. Smith. “The board will meet within a few days but what action we will take I can't discuss now,” he said.

‘Perfectly Legal’ Earlier, Arthur L. Gilliom, attorney and member of the board, defended as “perfectly legal” the board's appointment of Mr. Wooden but declined to discuss the board's reaction to Mr. Smith's letter. Mr. Wooden, who according to Mr. Smith received $2160 a year as | director of the Jefferson county wel-

| welfare directorship here. | The range for the local director is $5100 to $5800. | “The reason we fixed the salary iat $5800 is because it is a tremen{dously big job,” Mr. Gilllom said. “It i§ a man-killer. He is in charge of a department that handles nearly $4,000,000 a year.”

64TH TRIP TO COURT NETS HIM 180 DAYS

{ An alleged habitual drunk who was released just three days ago from the city jail today was sentenced to the state penal farm after running amok in a city street department truck. Leonard Hebble, 37, of 1645 Nelson st, was sentenced by Judge John Niblack to 180 days at the farm and { fined $111 and costs on four counts {after doing $200 damage to two parked cars yesterday. He had been employed by the street department only two days. He was charged with operating an automobile under the influence (of liquor, failing to stop after an accident, drunkenness and failure to | have a chauffeur's license. Cars he ran into between the 600 and 1000 block on Shelby st. belonged to Leon L. Meyers, English hotel, and John Atkison, New Au- ' gusta. | Hebble has been arraigned 63 times previously and convicted | mostly on drunk charges.

POST-WAR PRODUCTS

| SUBJECT OF TALK

{ Post-war products such as synthetic rubber, nylon and spun glass | will be discussed by Dr. Hutton Ira {Jones tonight at the American Society of Tool Engineers executive dinner at 7 o'clock at the Claypool hotel. Dr. Jones is managing director of ithe Hizone research laboratory, Wilmette, III. The dinner will be held with the Chamber of Commerce,

DETAIL FOR TODAY Service Club

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HN |

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\ ~\4 fs we. A private who is allergic to work

can be found at the SERVICE CLUB at almost any hour. There is a sign on the door reading, “For Enlisted Men Qnly,” so he can relax in peace without" to dodge behind G. I. cans to elude the glance of some eagleeyed second looey, If his first sergeant ‘ever treks way over there to root him out, the private can always. crawl under a table. The SERVICE CLUB has everything—a cafeteria, ping pong tables, radio, library and, gee, look, fellas, GIRLS! The private just likes to mosey into the CANTEEN CLUB, pick a comfortable chair, light up a smoke and do some high-elass ogling ho done—he's

WOODEN CASE

Dudley A. Smith Charges!

county welfare board that unless it| §

supply his department with ‘accept-|.

Holy oils were blessed today, Maundy Thursday, at SS. Peter and Paul's cathedral, for use in the Indianapolis Catholic diocese during the year.” The Most Rev. Joseph E. Ritter, bishop, was assisted by more than 50 diocesan priests in white vestments.

Indianapolis Times

Holy Oils Blessed on Maundy Thursday

WASHINGTON, April 6.—Maj.

Gen. Barnes should know: At some 1600 weapons captured frem

to pistols. - “We have at least one, and usually more, of every weapon used aganist us in battle so far” General Barnes said. . He has an organization of battlefield technicians who gather specimens of abandoned or captured enemy equipment and send them to Aberdeen, often by air freight.

Loog for Criticism

And he has a corps of men moving constantly through all branches of the army, looking for criticisms, digging into complaints and reporting to Washington what the men say who handle the weapons. At the proving ground the captured weapons are fired in competition with comparable American weapons and their characteristics are studied by ordnance experts. General Barnes has been disturbed by stories from Italy that the Germans have better weapons than we have, and stories from the South Pacific that Australian and British ordnance is superior to ours. “When people bere read such things they are naturally distressed.”

Recently there was a story from Italy that the German 170 gun, a large artillery piece, would outrange the comparable American gun—the 200-mm. : “That,” said Gen. Barnes, “is just not true. We have both guns at Aberdeen and we have made exhaustive tests. Our gun will outrange the German gun, For military reasons we will not release the statistics—the Germans would love to have them—but I can tell you this: The Germans mislead their own soldiers about what their weapons do; we tell our men the truth.

Tanks Bring Victory

“Military security frequently imposes uncomfortable restrictions on us. We'd like to challenge some statements made about our ordnance, but that would be playing into the hands of the enemy. “But I can point out this: The British have frequently said that Montgomery's victory in the North African desert was built around our General Sherman and General Grant tanks. The Germans have good tanks but ours are better, and the tests on the proving grounds and on the battlefield show they are better.” Garand Is Best

Gen. Barnes also mentioned instances where our weapons are so far superior to the enemy's that there is no room for opinion. One is the semi-automatic rifle, the Garand, used by our infantrymen. No other army has such a rifle as standard equipment. Most use a bolt-action gun, a much slowerfiring one. Lately the Germans have brought out a semi-automatic rifle, but few have appeared so far and the mode] makes Gen. Barnes smile. : “If that's the best they can do, we don’t have to worry,” he said. “Superiority of weapons,” the

{general said, “is not necessarily de«

termined by size. What's our ratio of victories in the air in the Sduth Pacific? Something like eight or ten to one. In Europe it runs two or three to one. “Well, the Japs and the Germans are using machine guns firing a bullet 8 of an inch in diameter.

{Our 50-caliber gun shoots a half-

inch bullet. U. S. Guns Safer

“That gives them an edge in size of ammunition, but our bullets do the work; we knock down more of their planes than they do of ours. Of course, a lot of other factors enter that picture—pilots, plages, training, etc., but ‘nonetheless. our guns must be effective or we would not shoot down the other planes.” Also, the general said, we use refinements far above the standards of the Germans or Japs. We have a “bore safe” one which will

fuse,

Tests Show Nazi, Jap War Weapons Inferior to Ours

By DICK THORNBURG Scripps-Howard Staff Writer

technical division of the army ordnance department, wants to assure you that American weapons are superior to those of our enemies.

everything from 60-ton tanks to trench knives, from large artillery

tl it has left

Gen. G. M. Barnes, chief of the

Aberdeen proving grounds he has Germans and Japs. These include

the artillery piece. Occasionally something goes wrong in firing a gun. When a shell explodes in a German or Jap gun it kills the gun crew. “That's a refinement that costs extra money and material, but it helps the morale of. artillery crews to know they are safe from their own shells while the Germans and Japs know they are not safe,” he | said.

A. W. POPPENSEAKER DEAD AT RESIDENCE

LOCAL SOLDIER ON ITALY FRONT

APRIL 1S COLD,

Only Peas May Suffer, Says

PAGE 17

BUT DAMAGETO CROPS 1 LIGHT

Irwin; Strawberry Grow-

ers Perturbed. Although April's cold spell has

come close to being a record-break- : er, Marion county's crops have suffered little damage so far.

The temperature went down to 24 degrees Tuesday, one degree above the all-time record for April 4 and 20 degrees below the day's normal temperature of 48 degrees, However, the mercury has been rising since and the weather bureau views the future with an optimistic “fair and warmer.” The only possible crop damage here will be to the early pea crop, according to A. A. Irwin, assistant county agricultural agent. There is still plenty of time for planting most vegetables, and the fruit is not far enough along to be hurt by the cold wave, he said. Growers in southern Indiana are perturbed about the cold weather effects on their strawberry, raspberry, peach and blackberry crops. Some feared that after the thermometer dropped to 20 degrees yesterday, much of the crop was lost. Strawberry plants have formed crowns and should be in full blossom; many raspberry bushes are dying from a disease, and the blackberry bushes are far advanced.

Pfc. Kellett Lays Wires to

Maintain Contact With | Fight Units.

, Pfc. Edward L. Kellett of Indian-| apolis, who lays wires to maintain contact between the fighting elements on the 5th army's Anzio-Net- | tuno beachhead proves that his job is not only one of the most painstaking, but also one of the most] dangerous. “We're under enemy artillery fire;

nearly all the time while we work,” |

he explained in a release from headquarters of the 5th army. “It's extremely difficult setting the wires up

once, but the job is seldom done,|

once. It frequently happens that the wires are shelled as soon as the switchboards begin to operate. “We often have to lay the wire across open ground,” he added.

August W. Poppenseaker, retired! groceryman, died today at his home, | 1624 Sharon ave. He was 72 and a! lifelong resident of Indianapolis. After working 23 years at the old Udell Ladder Works, Mr. Poppenseaker operated his own grocery at 2626 N. Harding st. for 13 years. He later managed a Standard grocery, retiring 10 years ago. Survivors are his wife, Mary; a son, Melvin; a daughter, Mrs. Gladys Hemphill; three grandchildren, Betty, Margaret and Norma Poppenseaker, all of Indian{apolis, and four sisters.

home at.3 p. m. Saturday by the Rev. Blaine Kirkpatrick of the Riverside Methodist church and the Rev. Paul Reison of the Methodist church at Fowler. Burial will be in Crown Hill.

SIGNS POST-WAR BILL TRENTON, N. J, April 6 (U. P.). —Governor Walter E. Edge signed a bill today creating a state department of economic development

Services will be conducted at the

“There isn't time to dig in all along a wire line while laying the wire, and offen we're pinned down by enemy fire. When that happens we crawl the rest of the way. It's impossible to stay long in one place, no matter how dangerous it is to move, because there are more jobs piling up all the time and we have to get back to them.” Pfc. Kellett is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Herman Kellett, 5530 W. Abbott st.

‘WILLS ONE DOLLAR FOR HUSBAND’S NOOSE

TRENTON, N. J., April 6 (U. P).|

—The will of Mrs. Mary Gress Kubery, which was probated here today, bequeathed $2 to her husband with the provision that “he use $1 of the same to purchase a rope to hang himself.” Mrs. Kubery, whose will said her husband “has been very mean and cruel to me during my lifetime,” did not specify what he was to do with the other dollar, She left the bulk

to deal with post-war problems.

of her estate to her son.

Peaches have escaped serious damage so far, growers said.

PLEAD GUILTY IN

FALSE TAX RETURNS

Probation officers of the federal court today investigated the cases of Harry Brinne of Ft. Wayne and James J. Gavin of Jeffersonville,

both of whom admitted filing false income tax returns, and Charles Grow, Muncie, admitted embezzler of postal funds, preparatory to | imposition of sentence. “ All three men appeared in court here yesterday to change innocent pleas to pleas of guilty. Brinne, a juke box operator, admitted falsification of returns in 1937, 1938 and 1939. The indiet{ment charged he paid only $20.86 lof an actual tax of $5515.67. Gavin was accused of falsifications amounting to $90,000. : Grow, a hotel manager, was ac {cused of taking $743 in money order funds from the hotel substation. .

CAPEHART TO SPEAK AT MEETING HERE

! Homer Capehart, candidate for the Republican nomination for senator, will speak at on open meeting of the Morton Republican club of the second ward at 8 p. m. tomorrow at the Odd Fellows hall, 10th { st. and Temple ave. Mr. Capehart will discuss “Shall We Progress With the Constitution or Be Tried by a Bureaucracy? Harry Alford will introduce the |speaker, and Ray Mullikin, club | president, will preside. Mrs. William A. Hayes, chairman lof the entertainment and refreshment committee, will be assisted by | Mrs. Myrtle Keough, Mrs. Helen | Jones, Mrs. Eva Dickinson, Mrs. | Louise Meyer; Mrs. Iva Lawson and ‘Mrs, Ethel Mullikin.

By 8S. J. WOOLF NEA Staff Writer A BOMBER BASE IN ENGLAND, April 6—The officers’ lounge, like most of the other buildings at this base, is a Nissen

hut. A small stove at one end and a fireplace at the other serve to take off the chill. Here the officers congregate after evening mess, Some read, others chat or doze in the chairs arranged in a semi-circle about the hearth. One night I happened to tie up with Lt. Martin Stone of Brooklyn. Stone is a pilot, but of unusual proportions. He's large and fat and loves sweets. The others often rib him about his size, but like most fat people he is good natured. “I don’t fill the bill at all,” he said to me. “The girls are crazy about pilots, and picture them as tall, thin and athletic. But nobody loves a fat man—even a fat pilot.” While we were speaking, a small Cocker Spaniel which I had noticed about the lounge ever since I had arrived at the base came up to us and began to whimper as if it wanted something. Flier Was Lonely

“Have you ever heard the story about this dog?” Stone asked as he took the animal on his lap. “It belonged to a fellow from Charlotte, N. C. He was a strange, . silent chap who went to the C. O. and asked to be sent on a mission the first day he got here. He kept to himself most of the time and none of us knew much about him. He spent most of his spare time ‘in rigging up gadgets for his billet. He put in extra electric light sockets, made a stove out. of a discarded oil barrel and planned to build a kerosene heater out of other Junk. Sits : : 26 sound Loely

“He’s trying

to ask what has become of his bu

Lonely Pup Keeps Hopeful Vigil for Pilot-Master Who Never Came Back

» Iained ax

officer as S. J. Woolf made this sketch at a U. 8, base in England,

he came back from a leave with this pup. It cost him 12 pounds. He was so bashful that he never got close to any one, and the dog was his only real companion. The ‘pooch felt the same way about him, and when he was around, it would _ have nothing to do with any of us. : : “Then one day he got what he was after. He was picked to pilot a plane that was to go on a mis-