Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 December 1944 — Page 13

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. WITH THE 1ST ARMY, Germany, Tuesday, Dec. 19 (Delayed). —We went out looking for a war, and it ‘came up to meet us, . It was an hour's drive to headquarters and when we got there the'.colonel wasn't at all helpful, Each time we pointed to a road on the map, saying we'd like to go there, he'd reply, “Well, if you wish, but

paratroopers are attacking single jeeps and two

German, tanks control the crossroads. The road through this woods is’ under sniper fire. I'd not advise you to go to that town. The Germans took it an hour ago.” “Well, what do you suggest?” I finally asked, in tion.

“I'd suggest you go back where you came from,” «he said, “You'll run right into a battle there, unless you're too late.”

Colonel Wasn't Kidding

THE COLONEL wasn't kidding. That was at noon.. Tonight we are on the way back and up around where we were, the Jerries and Americans battle through the .night, On the way back we met a photographer, He had gone out to find a war, run smack into it and was back telling about it. “They're j-j-j-just ‘over there,” he stuttered, “and ooming this way with 90 tanks.” His remarks were emphasized by two ME-109 Jerry planes overhead and the explosion of the bombs they

Lo oking fora War

(Ernie Pyle is on racation)

Sropped on tte road \eaiing wuk of the town, the road we had to travel. 50 We Fed on, @-perioot tar. get for Jerry planes.

Tears and Agony Ta

I WILL NOT FORGET {he téars and the agony in the eyes of those Belgians as we drove along the streets and on into the countryside. They have lived under German tyranny, They had been happy when we drove the Jerries away and now they faced more terror as we moved back before the advancing German troops. Perhaps these simple people did not realize the significance of the scene for as we, who couldn't help them if German troops tried to enter the town, were leaving, going forward on the same road were American doughboys, heavily armed, who could do something.

We rode in a topless jeep so we could see Jerry

planes coming in time to dive for ditches. High above

us were American bombers leaving long, white ribbons

‘of smoke in fantastic patterns.

Anti-aircraft guns were spotted at regular intervals, their gunners grimly alert. Giant tank destroyers brought a feeling of relief, almost happiness, for we knew they could knock out the Tiger tanks. Doughboys with rifles, grenades and machine guns ~how good they looked to us! And with what quiet assurance they went into battle.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

JOLLY OLD Santa Claus may be choking back a tear as he smiles at the youngsters. When Santa showed up for work the other morning at a department store, a fellow worker noticed the old gent seemed downcast. “How come you're so gloomy?” the friend asked. And then Santa explained: His son is with Gen. Patton's forces in Europe. “And the boy’s mother had a presentiment that he had been killed. So Santa stayed up all night attempting to comfort Mrs. Santa and reassure her. “I don’t know whether I'll be able to make it through today,” Santa said. But he did. . . . One of our agents stood right behind a middle-aged couple at Illinois and Washington the other evening. After about a minute of silence, the husband spoke: “You went with me to buy my new hat and my shoes. But you aren't going with me to get a haircut.” Whereupon he shoved off without waiting for his wife. . . . Note to Ed Smith, 760 N. Pershing—and others: Yep, the comics were switched—accidentally—Monday and Tuesday. Just goes to prove accidents will happen in the best regulated families. Evidently lots of folks *read the comics, judging from the calls received.

Slightly Confusing

FORMER GOVERNOR Cliff Townsend and his son, Max, went to Arkansas last Saturday for some duck hunting. - Imagine the surprise of Mrs, Max Townsend, therefore, when she received a telegram Wednesday reading: “Got 80 bucks: be home Saturday.” She wasn't sure whether Max had engaged in a crap game, or Western Union had made a typographical error. . . . One of our readers phones to scream to high heaven about being gypped. He says he bought a couple of two-pound boxes of chocolates at a downtown store, paying $2 a box. And then, he stopped in his neighborhood drug store and found the very same candy for only $1.35. He wants to know

" what he can do about it. Answer: Nothing much—

except to keep on screaming. . . . A ‘Shortridge lad calls to give us a fill-in on the girl seen carrying a

‘World of Science

THE OTHER AFTERNOON I chanced to be out in the country at sunset and, glancing to the west, I spied just over the top of a hill the bright planet Venus. I wish that I could do justice to the scene—the bleak, bare trees lost in the deepening shadows of the hillside, the cold, dark sky above, and in complete contrast to earth and sky, the gleaming, beckoning warmth of bright Venus, like a lantern of hope or a herald of new wonders ahead. Looking at it I was reminded of the legend of the Star of Bethlehem and I began to wonder if any more explanation was needed for the event than the planet Venus, Attempts to explain the Star of Bethlehem fall into three categories. There are those who prefer to regard the event as supernatural and not requring any further explanaon, ‘One cannot quarrel with those who choose this view, but it is well to point out that more than 300 years ago Johann Kepler, the great German astronomer and a devoutly religious man, sought a natural explanation of the star,

Conjunction of Plants?

THE SECOND school of thought, like Kepler, seek to explain it as an unusual astronomical event, perhaps a comet or & nova~a star that suddenly flares into new brilliance. Kepler's own notion was that of a conjunction, the close approach of either two or three planets. + The third point of view is that the star was a

My Day

WASHINGTON, Thursday Yesterday was a day of many appointments, and they covered many subjects. ‘ 1 had a very young gentlemén come. because he 1s

writing an article for his school paper. He is in

military school and concerned

roll of adhesive tape to which a number of peailes had been fastened. It's a sort of initiation conducted by one of the Shortridge clubs, he says, with the pledges vying to see who can receive the most donations of pennies. Just a mild form of gold digging. . . » Must be tough to have a birthday on or near Christmas. The situation gives folks too much of an excuse for giving one gift for the two occasions. We're reminded of this situation upon learning that Miss Frances Searcy of Drexel Gardens will be 24 on Dec. 24.

Back Home Again

LT. LYMAN 8. AYRES, U. 8. N. R,, will be back on the job as vice president of Ayres’ within a couple of weeks or so. Lt. Ayres, who saw service aboard ship in the South Pacific, developed eye trouble and spent some time in a hospital in Australia. Back in this country, he was assigned as an instructor in the navy school at Princeton. His school was closed recently, and now he’s back in civvies. His brother, Lt. F. M. Ayres, is temporarily assigned by the navy to Miami. . . . Lt. Col. Marc Donnelly, home for a few days after service in the South Pacific, is occupying for the first time the house he bought the day he left for the army two years ago. He wanted a place for his family to live while he was gone. And he bought the house at 6130 Kingsley without having seen the inside—merely drove past. Since arriving here, he has called the families of several servicemen with whom he has served to give the families a fill-in on the health and doings of their loved ones. . . . We've been receiving a flood of V-mail letters from hometown Seabees calling attention td “the third anniversary of the ‘workingest, fightingest bunch of men’ in the nation's armed forces—the navy Seabees.” The letters, all identical, explain that the observance will be on Dec. 28. Among the Seabees sending us the letters are Fred G. McCool, 8. 1-c, whose father is an employee of The Times; Fred M. King, E. M. 3-c; Edward Hussion, 8. C. 2-¢ (320% Virginia); John T. Ferguson, 8. 2-¢; William Eugene Meyer, Y. 1-¢ (2260 N. Pennsylvania); William H. Yates, 8. l-c; W. L. McQuillen, 8 1-c (3031 8. State ave.); and L. D. Castleman, M. M. 1-¢ (Hawthorne Uane). Hooray for the’ Seabees.

By David Dietz

single planet which, by reason«of its motions with respect to the earth, grew unusually bright, The planet Venus is doing that right now. It is approaching the earth at the rate of about' 500,000 miles a day and growing brighter as it approaches. It is also moving higher into the night,

We See Little of the Heavens

THE TROUBLE with us city dwellers is that we see little of the heavens. The lights of the streets and shops are so bright that they hide the older lights that shine in the sky. But this was not true in the olden days when the shepherds watched their flocks on the hillsides at night. Thus the changing brightness of a planet would have been something that they would have noticed carefully and commented upon. Any attempt to fix the Star of Bethlehem by calculation of the configuration of the planets 1900 yeaks ago runs into considerable difficulty because of the uncertainty about the exact date of the birth of Jesus, Many people might assume that it was Dec. 25, in the year 1 A. D., but church scholars are not of this opinion. At the time of the birth of Jesus the chronology in use was that of the Roman Empire, which dated from the building of Rome. The “Anno Domini” chronology was not. instituted until about the year now known as 533 4 D. It was originated by Dionysius Exiguus, known also as Denys the Little, who assumed that Jesus was born in the 28th year of the reign of Augustus of 754 years after the building of Rome. Church scholars today are more inclined to think that Jesus was born in the year which we now designate as 4 B, C. In addition, the earliest records seem to indicate that the first Christmas celebrated Jan. 6 as the birthday of Jesus.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Setbacks like these must, of course, be expected, but ft makes one’s heart ache to think of the gloom and disappointment among our soldiers and the news of individual losses, which will come increasingly often knocking at our doors. Three people I have heard of today can hardly ace Christmas season with a joyous spirit, and my heart is heavy for the accumulated sorrow all about us. : An article which appeared the other day in a Cali-

By Jack Bll]

~The Indianapolis

SECOND SECTION

. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1944 ;

HOW JOE GREW STARTED CLIMB TO DISTIN GUISHED POST—

Shoots a Tiger, Becomes a Diplomat

By PETER EDSON NEA Staff Writer

WASHINGTON. — Because he

crawled into a, cave in China to shoot a tiger, over 40 years ago, Joseph Clark Grew, at 64, is today the new undersecretary in the department of state. In 1902 young Joe Grew, scion of a Boston banking family and fresh out of Harvard, was offered as a graduation present the usual trip to Europe for a year's travel before settling down to business. With a few classmates, however, Grew decided to vary the traditional sightseeing by shooting his way around the world. » » ”

AT “THE appointed time the gay young blades assembled in

« Singapore and -set about char-

tering a little boat to cruise up

the Malay coast, then go into:

the jungles on a tiger hunt, * They had some trouble with the native skipper, who tried to hold them up when he discovered they were rich young Americans, but overcoming that, the expedition went ahead and Grew got his first big striped cat. He also got malaria. After his recovery, the party, set out for Burma for another hunt, but there Grew's malaria returned and he had to go to a hospital, ] . » » WHILE he was: bed-ridden, Grew was visited almost daily by an American consular officer. One day the consul brought him flowers and in his high fever Grew threw the bouquet at his well-meaning visitor — and then regretted it. But why, the invalid wanted to know, should any American wdy out in Burma be so concerned as to call on a perfect stranger and bring him flowers?

THE CONSUL explained. He was an officer of the United States government and it was part of his duty to look after Americans who might be in that part of the world, whenever they were in difficulty. Grew was interested. When he got over his second attack of malaria, Grew joined the young hunters on a journey to the Chinese jungles to bag another tiger. The hunt included the usual

GERMAN VIEW— Patton Losing Siegfried Line Grip, Nazis Say

By W. R. HIGGINBOTHAM United Press Staff Correspondent LONDON, Dec. 22.— German spokesmen asserted that the American 3d army was abandoning its hold on the Siegfried line east of the Saar river today, The German DNB news agency said Lt. Gen. George 8. Patton's troops were pulling out of the forefield-of the Siegfried line all along the Saar front because of the flanking threat posed by the new Nazi drive against the 1st army. There was no confirmation of the enemy report, which contrasted strongly with the somewhat gloomy propaganda line suddenly adopted by Berlin last night. . ” . SWEDISH correspondents in Berlin said the German press and official spokesmen were beginning to show anxiety over the stubborn stand of the American 1st army, At the same time, German newspapers began _ publishing warnings that “several thousand allied bombers” may .shortly be thrown against the attacking Nazi

columns and that American re- |

sistance has stiffened in Belgium with the arrival of fresh reserves, The Nazi propagandists, who last Sunday were boasting that “the next few days will be de cisive,” told Swedish correspondents last night that “no decision can be expected before next week.” » ~ .

UNCONFIRMED reports said the Germans were believed to have as many as 25 divisions engaged in the western offensive or in reserve to exploit a breakthrough, and that additional troops are being rushed in from the Baltic states for an attack on the allied forces flanking the American 1st army. German spokesmen earlier claimed that a 62-mile breach had been torn in the 1st army line, through which Nazi tanks are striking for the Meuse river. German communiques also claimed that heavy losses had been inflicted on the American army—a claim denied by 1st army spokesmen, at the tronf, The Nazis said “20,000 Americans have been captured since the start of the offensive last Saturday,

THE SPIRIT OF SHRETMA

AND

Joseph C. Grew, as he appeared in 1932, when he was appointed

ambassador to Japan, and as he

looks today as undersecretary of

state. Dean of the diplomatic service, Grew is a veteran of 40 years as a career man in the State Department.

trappings. Chinese hunters first tethered a goat on the edge of a clearing. . #8 THAT night a tiger came after the bait and devoured it. Next night, another goat. Then the beaters tracked the tiger to a cave where it would sleep off its

feast. Chinese guides summoned Grew to the cave and told him to go in and get it. Young Grew got down on his hands and knees, pushed his gun ahead of him and crawled into the opening. The Chinese had lit torches which were held at other openings of the cave, but they merely filled the place with smoke and added to the darkness. ” . . WHEN GREW'S eyes became accustomed to the gloom he looked about him. At one opening ahead he saw two bright points of light. Working his rifle into position, he aimed between the two bright spots and fired. / Immediately everything in the cave went black. Not" knowing for a minute whether the tiger had jumped on him before he had fired or just what had happened, Grew finally decided that he was unhurt and

The German offensive has changed the strategic picture on the Western front and threatens to prolong the war, What lies behind the Germans’ initial success? James McGlincy, United Press war correspondent at supreme allied headquarters, attempts to answer this and other pertinent questions in this dis patch,

By JAMES McGLINCY United Press Staff Correspondent

PARIS, Dec. 22.—Military observers believed today that the German offensive in Belgium and Luxembourg caught the allies off balance to a greater extent than any development since the tide of war turned at Stalingrad two years ago. It would be difficult and possibly undesirable to delineate the allies’ failure at the present stage

started crawfishing out of the cave, » » ~ . WHAT had happened was that the concussion of the shot had blown out all the torch lights, leaving the cave in blackness. New torches were lit and Grew had to crawl back into the cave

a second time. There he found

the cat had been shot right between the eyes. Backing out, he sent the Chinese in to drag out the carcass and skin it. . . »

THAT WAS enough tiger hunting. Grew. came back to Boston to advise his family that he was going into the consular service. That caused more consternation than the tiger hunt. A son and heir of a Boston banker go into the 1dwly employ’ of the government? Unthinkable, But the young man persisted. He learned of a newly appointed minister to Siam just ready to sail for Bangkok and persuaded that dignitary to take him ‘on as a secretary. . . n ’ ® WHEN the Grew family heard what had happened they brought pressure on the diplomat to cancel the appointment, on the ground that young Joe was just a little hard of hearing, and would be unfit for the service.

WHAT'S BEHIND SUCCESS OF NAZI DRIVE?—

Allied Intelligence Blamed

of the offensive. But the progress of the Germans makes it obvious that they scored an out standing surprise.

‘ ® =& »

THE FINGER of blame seems to point at allied military intelllgence. Its critics say intelligence terribly under - estimated the strength of the enemy's mobile reserves. Intelligence would appear to have neglected completely—or was ignorant of—an enemy concentration of no less than 15 divisions in the Eifel mountains east of Belgium and Luxembourg. Similarly, either air reconnaissance over the Eifel mountains was neglected or its reports disregarded by the allied high command. The allies possibly believed that a German attack in its present strength was impossible, observers theorized.

Arthur Simpson Hurt on Peleliu

MARINE CPL. ARTHUR SIMPSON JR. is recovering at the U. 8. naval hos pital, Oakland, Cal, from a wound received in the battle for Pele~

and Mrs, thur Simpson Br, 37 W. 8t Clair st, he i. emerged from two major cameCpl. Simpson [ons unscathed before a Jap rifle bullet wounded him while he was charging on an enemy position near the Peleliu airfield.

VICTIM OF BURNS ‘SLIGHTLY IMPROVED’

* Baker Barrett, 21-year-old Indi- ; was reported

anapolis embalmer,

again today to be “slightly im-

critical. Mr, Barrett's

night caught fire,

IER ENS 7 y 4 ' ARE

MAS

proved” although his condition at Methodist hospital was regarded as

_body is more than half-covered with severe burns which he suffered when a Santa

Claus suit he was wearing Monday

| repair,

Young Grew then tried appeal to the President — Theodore Roosevelt, who was also a Hare vard man -- for a direct appointment to the consular service. All such jobs in those days were political plums. There was no” U. 8. foreign service with competitive exami-

nations promotions for merit within thé service. » . »

T. R. WROTE back that he was sorry, but pressure from congressmen to have their constituents appointed to these soft jobs kept him without any vacancies to which he might appoint men of his own choice. Undaunted, Grew went to Cairo and there got himself a job as a clerk at $600 a year, indexing and copying records that were years out of date in the files of the American consulate, As a spare time a Ty he started to write a book, “Sport and Travel in the Far East” which recounted his experience at tiger hunting.

. » . WHEN the manuscript was fin. ished, it was sent to a Washington acquaintance of the Grew family with a request for advice and help on finding a publisher, The friend read the manuscript and on a walk with the President one day, told T. R. about the youhg hunter-author’s experiences. Interested, the President asked to see the copy, read it all through and then said that the United States needed young men of that sort .in its consular service. He offered Joe Grew an appointment as deputy consul general in Cairo, . w THAT WAS in Noveruber, 1004. Less than two years later he was a third secretary in the embassy at Mexico City and he went on from there, with &ppointments in St. Petersburg, Berlin, and Vienna; as minister to the Versailles conference, to Denmark, and to Switzerland; as ambassador to Turkey and Japan. Dean of the foreign service, he is a career diplomat of 40 years rich experience which he takes with him to the position of under secretary of state. “1 passed my examination for the foreign service,” he told an old friend in the. department of state, “when I crawled into that cave to shoot a tiger in China.”

THE ONLY alternative explanation for the thinness with which the 60-mile line between Monschau and Echternach was held would appear to be that the high command, even though aware of the concentration, underestimated German audacity, The initial success &f the offensive was all the more surprising in the light of the fords with which Marshal Karl von Rundstedt had to work. The German army marching through Belgium and Luxembourg today is no longer that which reached the English channel over the same route in five days in 1940.

» ” » THIS IS an army or armies of panzers without enough fuel. The enemy forces are under orders to capture and use all American vehicles, guns, ammunition and fyel possible to counter-balance their lack of equipment. The hundreds of thousands of crack young Infantrymen who rode across France and Belgium in 1940 have been replaced largely by less-trained and older memsbers of the Volks grenadier, or people's army, now almost all afoot, » » ” THEN THOUSANDS of paratroops floated down from hune dreds of transport planes. This time fewer than 1000 paratroops altogether have been dropped. Most of them were second-class. And the Luftwaffe which ruled the skies unchallenged in 1940 has been reduced almost to impotency by the huge allied air forces.

All Lines Down To Santa Claus

It’s no use, kids, you can't call Banta Claus. Evansville and Boonville, Ind. telephone operators reported today they were unable to get calls through to Santa Claus, Ind., because telephone lines to the tiny Hoosier hamlet were in need of

An attempt was made last night to contact Postmaster Oscar L. Phillips, who annually cancels hundreds of thousands of pieces of mail with the magic “Santa Claus, Ind., postmark at Christmas time, to determine this year’s volume of mail. he,

Gos Laurens Rose Diehl

Tomonow's Labor, Farm And Business

Join.Forces

By EDWARD A. EVANS WASHINGTON, Dec. 22. “When labor and farm leaders urge tax law changes to help business corporations,” says Clinton 8, Golden, vice president of the C. 'I, O. United Steel Workers, “that ought to be. news.” wo inca So it is—and © good news, too, It comes about through the § National Plan-

gether on common ground { the general good.” Labor members of the N. P. A, headed by Mr. Golden, and farm members, headed by Dr. T. W, Schultz, - have just sponsored a resolution asking congress modify the federal. income excess-profits tax laws aff corporations. & » » .

CAREFUL study has convinced them: that, when war contracts are canceled or cut back thous sands of small companies and some larger ones in the machine« tool, aircraft, shipbuilding and other industries will be dangerously short of working capital Most of these companies will be

legally entitled to certain refunds

of wartime taxes, : ‘But, as the law stands, they would have to wait a couple of years for the refunds, meanwhile paying taxes on current profits if any, so that in many cases they couldn't finance plans for post

* war expansion of production and

employment, The N.P.A. resolution proposes that companies be allowed to estimate the amounts of their prospective tax refunds, to reduce their current tax payments by such amounts, and to use the money withheld for redonversion

and expansion,

. = 9 IF THEY withheld more than

able spirit the post-war prospect will be brighter for all,

We, the Women Co-Eds Get Some Valuable

Experience

By RUTH MILLETT AT SLIPPERY ROCK college in Pennsylvania this year there are only nine men students and evefyone of them is on the base ketball team—which leaves wome en students the responsibility for cheering the

life-time work of women, In war their main job is to boost morale—which

is just another form of cheering

the team, ” ” ” WHEN THEY go into the busi« ness world the women who get along with a masculine boss and men workers are those who applaud, admire and encourage every‘hing the men do. “You certainly have Mr. Smith eating out of your hand” a» woman employee tells the man

. working at ‘the next desk,

Such tactics, which keep popu= lar in the office, are nothing more or less than the applause of a well-trained rooter, ” ” ”

SOCIALLY, of course, women are always in the cheering section. They don't dare monopolize the conversation when there are men around, And their greatest social asset isn’t the ability to talk intel Jigently or put over a funny story, » . - IT MAY be necessary for a woman to be her husband's help« mate, but nothing she ever di to keep ‘the family going bri her as much credit from her hus. band as her readiness to stick him through good times and

i Aon

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