Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 25 January 1945 — Page 15

“Now It’s Our Turn’

(Ernie Pyle Mg left tor the Pacific theater of action and his first columns from that area will start in the near future.)

| ST. VITH, Belgium, Jan. 24 (Delayed). —"Elements of various units of the Tth armored division cap-

| | official communique. “Resistance was not heavy. {Just one month ago the 7th was forced to retreat 4 from this area.” ? So we have St, Vith, last important road center wrested from us by the Germans during their ambitious winter offensive... “this is- the story of the taking of the city: Slowly, with fatalistic calm, long lines of whiteclad doughboys moved toward battle. No laughter, no wisecracking. Occasionally the lines stopped, a hand was raised and each soldier of dropped to his knees in the snow it —a line on each side of the road, the men spaced 10 yards apart: Suddenly artillery thundered: from every alley. hells fell just ahead and methodically every soldier flattened in the snow alongside the road, the one I inearest me saying: “Hope to God it ain't mined there.” {| Prom lanes and alleys of the village, tanks rolled ‘lonto the road and moved forward, the doughboys ‘lwading deeper in the snow to let them pass.

| War Just Over the Hill

! THE WAR was just over the hill at the edge liof the town. One unit took the trail to the left, anflother the right, a third straight ahead with the tanks. As they reached the edge of the woods outide the village, St. Vith lay below them a mile away. © My heart wanted to stop as I watched from a [ [tan building, American soldiers calmly walking out from their semi-shelter onto the snow-covered hillsides and down toward the city. , War is slow and dreary and heartbreaking, nothing spectacular. Its

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THE FAMOUS Dumbarton Oaks conference still a bit confusing to some folks around here, but we ra know it was one of the subjects on which offilal Washington also is in a state of confusion. The

ague of Women Voters is promoting discussion of the conference. Hearing the government had printed a pamphlet on the subject, Mrs. Drysdale Brannon of Marion, member of =~ the “state league's board, wrote to the government printing office in Washington, asking for it. Back came a letter saying the Dumbarton Oaks pamphlet isn’t in print yet, but adding: “We suggest you might be interested in another pamphlet which we have available.” Inclosed was a folder de- ! scribing a pamphlet on furniture. ! Il about fumed oak, we presume, but very little on Dumbarton Oaks. , , . Frank Linville read the note fin this column Tuesday in which we reported that ithe street railway isn’t expecting any of its ew [busses before early in May, and he dropped us the : 3 i

L Al

ollowing “note: “Maybe you had better ask Harry id again for the reason that about five new long, ay busses passed the westbound Washington car his morning and carried various Indianapolis routes.” (We called, Mr. Linville. They said they haven't re[ceived any new busses. The busses you saw must ave been merely passing through, en route to some other more fortunate city. . . . Paul R. Lingle, 1013 N. Dlney, sends us a Morris Plan calendar tossed on his porch. As he says, it looks like a jigsaw puzzle, The pages start with May, 1946, continuing through Deicember; then September to December, 1945; then Wanuary through April, 1946; then January through August, 1945. It ought to be just right for working out your income tax. .

tarting the Day Wrong

GERALD PURDY, deputy prosecutor assigned to municipal court, found getting to work a most complicated process the other day. Awakening and peering at the clock, he noted that it said 7:10, Fearing

e'd be late to court, he jumped out of bed, shaved”

land dressed in a hurry and was about to leave the

orld of Science

THE POST-WAR possibilities of synthetic rubber e a guod example of how science, economics, and

ternational politics are bound together today in a fabric tit cannot be unraveled into its component parts. 3 All. three will play important parts in determining how the baftle between natural rubber and synthetic rubber ends. Science will be on both sides of the fight. It is well known that synthetic rubbers superior to GR-8 rubber for special purposes already exist and a general purpose synthetic rubber superior to GR-S rubber will be made one of these days. GR-S_ rubber, as most readers know, is the synthetic rubber being made under the present government program | But there is also the possibility of research greatly tending the usefulness of natural rubber. Thus, we go back into the history of auto tires we find that large Size tires, such as truck tires, could not ibe made successfully until chemists had devised soalled accelerators -for speeding up the process of Icanization, The most important of these is capx, developed by Dr. L. B. Sebrell, now director of e Goodyear Research Laboratory.

conomic Factor Stressed '

ECONOMICS WILL likewise enter both sides of e battle for there will be a constant effort to bring

NEW YORK, Wednesday.—~I must say just a word jor two more -to you about the handling of youthful foffenders in the court which I visited yesterday morng. Judge Cioldstein treated the boys and girls with

ignily and solemnity, and I felt that his attitude must have made a real impression upon thém, As you read their records, however, you realized that it was not the hoys themselves who were entirely to blame for their crimes, Part of the blame must lie in the enviroment in which they lived the economic situation which their families had faced and the weaknesses of their parents. Over and over again you would read: “Lives % V in a squalid tenement,” or “father ; alcoholic” or “both paren olic.” How could you blame the goin not orking in an industry where he sometites earned eras our, it he used the money to get he starts SIE. many Wings a are

tured St. Vith at 1745 (5:45 p. m.) today,” seid the

And -

“hurp ‘gun 'purred softly, then another,

just gets out his flashlight, picks the pigeons off their.

By Jack Bell

‘drama is_wrapped in those men on the hillside, who dropped-onto the snow when the mortar canie, who ‘set’ up machine guns and went to work. The tahks left the road for side lanes, to cover the advancing infantry with machine-gun and ‘cannon fire, The world suddenly was a crazy-quilt pattern of sound—the lightning. staccato of German burp guns, | cour slower machine guns, rifles, and the steady popping of ‘tank guns. » © With ‘tanks in position, the doughs arose as their company commander waved an arm, up front, and waded slowly toward the city. Dead quiet burst upon the scene’ for a moment—a moment only. A The doughs dropped low, Then came the savage cracking of our heavy machine guns. Tank machine guns took up the crescendo, and then the maestro waved his baton and the heavy basses of the tank guns and 99mm, destroyers sent thunder rolling across the wooded areas into yon hills and back again. + Our planes swooped to bomb and strafe the Ger. man artillery on the high ground east of St. Vith.

Blood Drips Onto Snow

' FROM HIGH ground to the left German observers directed fire on the road down which our task force had moved two hours earlier. German mortar fire crashed into the doughs and worked steadily nearer the town and aidmen ran into the fields, carrying the wounded to the road, and came hurrying with loaded jeeps. And blood dripped onto the snow. At dusk the determined doughs and tank crews regained the city that they had left one month ago, after one of the war's most brilliant rearguard actions, which saved thousands of American infantrymen, - « Yesterday at noon, Brig. Gen. Bruce Clark, of Syracuse, directed the triumphal return. And the men, as they moved in, said grimly: “Now it’s our turn.”

(Copyright, 1945, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.)

house when he took another look at the clock. To his amazement, it then was only about 2 o’clock—in the morning. Since it had taken about 25 minutes to get ready, he realized he had looked at the clock wrong, and that instead of 7:10 when he awoke, it actually was 1:35. .He undressed and went back to bed. By then wide awake, he found it impossible to get to sleep for a couple of hours, with the result that he actually did oversleep and really was late for court. . Tom Batchelor, the lawyer, thought the war was over yesterday. “He went up to the New York Central ticket office in the Guaranty building at noon and found—instead of the usual milling crowd—that he was the only patron. He looked in the Pennsylvahia office: and found not a single customer there. He decided everyone must be staying home to work out their income tax.

Get em Drunk!

IT SEEMS MOST everyone is interested, one way or another, in the pigeon problem. For instance, Leonard Chain, 2508 Webb st., writes: “In reference to the pigeon and starling question, I've been wondering why someone didn’t mention about soaking the grain or feed in intoxicating drink, so the birds after being doped could be caught and disposed of. The pigeons could be housed until the stupor wore off, then eaten, and the starlings eould be done away with. We tried this with sparrows that riddled a grist mill of my father’s back east some years ago, and found it very “effective.” Sounds good, Mr. Chain, but we're not sure it would work, These pigeons around here have some mighty bad habits, but liquor isn’t one of them. . , . Incidentally, if Park Superintendent Paul Brown doesn’t get busy pretty quick, he may not find any. pigeons to trap pretty soon. One pigeon potpie fan’has worked out a scheme good for 15 to 20 pigeons a night. During the day he placed grain in the doorway of an old garage near University park. The pigeons follow the grain into the garage, then park there for the night. When it’s dark, the potpie lover

perches and stuffs them in a bag. .. . And over at the city hall, the janitors like potpie, to. Their particular scheme is to leave a window open half an inch or so. «Then, when a pigeon lands on the window sill, the janitors catch its feet with a wire with a hook on the end. It. works nearly every time.

By David Dietz

down _the price of both natural and synthetic rubber. “ In a survey for the American Chemical society, Dr. John T. Blake, director of research of the Simplex Wire & Cable Co., points out that natural rubber has sold for as little as 2% cents a pound and for as much as $3.12 a pound. “There 1s little doubt that when it sold for the lowest price a lot of money was lost,” he states, “and I am certain that at the higher price somebody made a handsome, profit. It used to be said that natural rubber. .could be laid down in New York at 8 cents a pound.”

Wages May Rise

HE DOES NOT think, however, that this price can be expected after the war because of the heavy investment that is going to be.necessary to get plantations working again. It is assumed that the Japanese have destroyed much of the machinery or will before they permit the plantations to be taken away from them. Many expert8 estimate that-it will take two years to- get the plantations working after the Japs are driven out. Another complicating factor will be the labor market, “It has been suggested that after the war the Far East natives will no longer be willing to work for the daily wage that made them happy in the past,” Dr, Blake says. He thinks thal if we have a thriving synthetic rubbersindustry in this country it will tend to keep down, the price of natural rubber and his guess ik that the price for natural rubber will be between 12 and 15 cents a pound,

e Indianapolis

SECOND SECTION

ON ITALIAN FRONT—

‘Mule Can Go Where Jeeps Can't Tread

By RICHARD MOWRER Times Foreign Correspondent WITH THE 5TH ARMY IN ITALY, Jan, 25—On this mountainous front there are places where even a jeep cannot go. The trails are too narrow and precipitous. In such sectors, the old-fash« foned army mule takes over from the streamlined, mechanized war machine J Coaxed and prodded by Italian muleteers, 5th army mules deliver ammunition, rations. and mail to soldiers in the front line and bring back the men’s dirty socks and letters to foxholes. - Nd ” » PRACTICALLY every trip for ward means, exposure to enemy fire. Generally the muleteers and their long-eared, ornery charges survive. Sometimes they don't. Whatever the case, the slow, dependable mulepack teams do their job, and in this war you won't find any soldier disparaging their war effort. “Without mules the winter campaign would be impossible,” William Williamson, Walla Walla, Wash., a captain in the quartermaster corps, told us. » ” sn THE MULEPACK stay well forward. The idea is that the closer they are to the front line, the shorter the haul and the better chance of their getting their mission accomplished during the dark hours. ‘On the other hand, being situated close to the front line means that in clear weather the mule companies are likely as not to be under direct enemy observation. This, as well as under artillery fire in any weather. » » » ME MET Lt. Thompson L. Wood, of San Francisco, Cal.—now “mule officer commanding,” as he terms himself, of the 11th Italian mule group. Wood showed us around. We went into the-hollow and contemplated the shaggy-coated mules munching hay. “We keep them separated in small groups, so if a shell lands, it won't kill all of them,” the lieutenant explained.

companies

» ” ” ITALIAN muleteers were standing in various isolated sandbagged dugouts, eating out of their messkits. They get modified B ration and make their own bread with Anterican flour. Twenty-five per cent of Italian muleteers are volunteers, the rest are from the regular Italian army. They are paid 55 cents a day. Wood introduced us to two other American members of the group: Pvt. Benjamin Mash, Philadelphia, a driver, and Pfc. Tony Sarafino, Philadelphia, an interpreter. ” s » “COME AROUND to the house,” said Wood. We went through the deep snow to the shell battered structure. We sat around the table and talked about mules. “Yes, they kick and bite,” he said. “But you get along if you have patience, and, well, if you just remember they are mules.” The 5th army’s mules come from Sicily, North Africa, Sardinia, Italy and India. They are smaller than Missouri mules, but just as ornery. ” » » THE FUNDAMENTAL rule that everybody in the vicinity of mules learns quick, is not to get on the outside of a mountain trail when a mule comes along. Anybody who stands on the drop side of the trail is just out of luck, because a mule just naturally shoves him off. The mules here use ice cleats and wear white flour bags for snow camouflage. They carry the average of a 200pound payload.

# ” ” WHEN THEY hit the trail they keep at intervals to present the least possible target, depending on the visibility. - There is a man to each mule. Under fire mules react very much like human beings: They automatically take shelter on the leeside of a rock or house and hang their heads down. They get scared too, but harely break away. ” 8 ” WE NOTICED a purple ribbon

cation; and, in spite of having spent billions of dollars | gn the war, unless we learn to Spend some portion in the same way on building for peace, our civilization stands (ttle chance of meeting the test which religion imposes upon us all. If Christ's life is the pattern by which we must live before we attain salva- | tion and peace, certainly the people that I saw in' court yesterday have had few evidences in their lives | that that is the real objective to which the people] around them aspire. It seems sometimes as though many of the men whose names are prominent among us, and who carry heavy responsibility, thought more of the security of their money than of the security of human beings, and that they judged men more by their ability to handle money with wisdom and -acumen than by their ability to use money for the benefit of human beings. Last evening I attended a dinner given by the refugee relief fund of the coat and suit industry. They have raised a fund, through their label system, which is divided among various organizations, such as ‘the national war fund, the greater New York fund and the refugee agency. They raise a separate fund’ Jor the. Red Cross. and jn. sddition, ‘of course, carry | on many Individual gifts; and the international ladies

on Wood's shirt under the open

| Jacket.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

“Where aid you get the purple heart?” we asked. “Over across the street where you were standing a few minutes ago,” Wood replied casually. “ “Oh,” we said and then, “guess we'd better be getting back. »

| Png 1 1945, by The Indianapolis Times _The he Chicago Daily | News, Ine.

CANADA CATHOLICS PLEAD FOR POLAND

QUEBEC, Jan. 26 (U. P.).—~The Roman - Catholic hierarchy In Canada today denounced “materialistic and atheistic communism,” charged it with seeking “internationational dictatorship,” and appealed to the allied nations “not to abandon heroi: Poland® to her fate.” ‘ The courageous part which the Russian people have played in turning away from the world the frightful Nazi domination must not blirid us regarding the world revolution which- the leaders, of international

communism always seek.” a public i

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 1945

Month 5 Output of One Plant Set Against Japs

SAIN AMS SORA S0 .

The composite photo above can give the Japs a faint idea of what's Representing less than one month’s output from only one American manufacturer—the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. in Burbank, Cal.—the myriad planes give a graphic demonstration of America’s greatest weapon— production capacity. The planes represented are the huge Constellation transport, P38 Lightning, Ven-

A A By Sm Arges mom Sma

tura Patrol bomber and the B-17 Flying Fortress.

in the wind for their homeland.

A DESERTER TELLS THE INSIDE STORY—

gi Do Germans Fight On?

By NAT A. BARROWS Times Foreign Correspondent STOCKHOLM, Jan. 25. — The man I know as Karl is a deserter from the German wehrmacht. - He is a refugee now happily in bitter fighting on the Eastern front against the Red army.

The history of life inside the wehrmacht, as I have heard it, is a tale of the childlike, and at the same time, raw and brutalized, feelings of the simple German soldiers ‘who still look upon Hitler as their god. They accept Nazi leadership as infallible. They are spiritually impotent and they go on and on, fighting with ever more frenzy because

Mr. Barrows

there is nothing else they can do.-

» » o

THIS MAN Karl is one of the few experienced wehrmacht soldiers ever able to survive the Eastern front hardships and escape the gestapo pursuit. How he reached Sweden is Karl's own business. He says he has no desire to return to Germany after allied victory—only back to Denmark with his Danish wife, His plain story of wehrmacht morale, waffen S. 8. brutalities, Nazi discipline and German fighting spirit, tells us all again how

the tired German soldier will not

give up fighting for his homeland—as long as he can draw breath. . » » » KARL KNOWS about this fanaticism. He was there—inside the wehrmacht.

De Gaulle to' Get Rare Metal Bar

PARIS, Jan. 25 (U. P.).—Gen. Charles de Gaulle may soon become custodian of the most precious bar of metal in the world ~the platinum-iridium alloy bar which «1s the basis of metric measurements everywhere. Since 1875 the bar has been kept at just-freezing temperature and standard atmospheric pressure in a safe in the Pavillon de Breuteuil in the Parisian suburb of Sevres, One of the three keys is kept by the president of the International Bureau of Weight# and

Measures, traditionally elected by - the French Academy of Sciences.

The last president, Vito- Vol«

terra, professor of mathematics of |

the Amiversity of Role, Slag in 1940. J The key has now ‘been retimet “to France, where reportedly it will

be confided to De Gaulle's care |

Saki ok soudomy loses anovbee

Nazi party,”

utral Sweden after long and °

“Remember, German soldiers have been brought up by the Karl told me. “They know no other thoughts but those their bosses want them to know. Their minds are utterly poisoned. “They admire Hitler as their God. =e lf Something happens which they consider unjust or corrupt, the soldiers say, ‘If only der fuehrer knew, he would put things straight.’ “For them Hitler is Providence: he has taken from their shoulders all personal responsibility. = " 8 “SOLDIERS with whom I fought on the Eastern front no longer believe in German victory, of course. ; “But they hope something or other will happen: A separate peace with Russia, or even with England. Or that the Nazis will be able to carry out their promises to the German people of creating a split, politically, among the .allies.” The mood of the German soldiers on the Eastern front can be characterized mainly by one word: fatigue. Now that they are battling on their own doorsteps against the Red army invasion, the wehrmacht troops. are showing inspired and desperate fanaticism which overbalances this basic fatigue. ' » » » NOTHING matters now except trying to hold the reich’s eastern portals from the Soviets. But in the words of Karl, the “German soldiers want to get through with the whole business as soon as possible. “Their fatigue after the long retreats through Russia is being minimized by the spectacle of what they think will happen inside the homeland, once the Red army makes a breakthrough.

>HANNAH ¢

McClure Now ipaper Syndicate

“They have an exceedingly bad conscience, all of them, for they know what the wehrmacht soldiers have done inside Russia and they are absolutely convinced that the Russians will take revenge in the same way. ne “THEY ARE -afraid- that —theRussians will burn and murder as the Germans did on the road to and from Stalingrad: “And after what I have seen my German comrades do in Russia I would not blame the Red army for anything they do when they reach Germany proper.” Why have the wehrmacht soldiers kept on fighting so long in the face of constant retreats and enervating fatigue? : The deserter’s answer should be studied - carefully by those ‘who fail to realize exactly how much bitter fighting lies ahead of all the allied peoples.

KARL SAID: “Every private is mortally afraid of his immediate superior. The corporal, and every corporal is mortally afraid of his sergeant, and so en up the line. “They do not dare disobey the rigid discipline, knowing how quickly they will be liquidated. “They kept.on fighting long before they reached East Prussia because they saw nothing else to do. “They said they might ‘as well continue fighting because if they didn’t, the only thing left was to shoot themselves—or be shot by their own officers’ orders. “The allies must not underestimate this state of mind. The wehrmacht is tired, yes, but it now has the biggest stimulant possible: defense of its own homeland and gnawing fear of Russian revenge.”

Stork Follows Appendectomy

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa., Jan. 25 (U. P)~—Mrs. Gerald Rougeux went to the hospital yesterday and underwent an appendectomy at 5 p. m.

This morning at 6:15 she gave birth to a girl, Both mother and child are reported doing well.

DE MILLE GETS LEGAL ADVICE IN UNION ROW

HOLLYWOOD, Jan, 25 (U.P.).— Cecil B. DeMille conferred with his attorney today on the next step in his battle with the American Fed-

eration of Radio Artists (A. P. ofl

L.) over Bon peor 3 $1 uhion MSS 3

‘an “asking price.”

PAGE 15

Manpower

Legion's Mind ‘Open’ on 6 Mo

Draft in Peace

By DANIEL M. KIDNEX

CURBSTONE OPINION around American Legion national head. quarters here is that the army would be willing to settle for a six-months peacetime universal military training bill, Although none of the Legion officials wanted to be quoted, they are willing to admit off the record that their army ~ approved measure pro - viding a fullyear of mili~ Tn tary training is Mr. Kidney Both the Lee gion and the army would settle for half a loaf and probably will, they admit. The Legion-backed one - year training bills were introduced in both the senate and house. First hearings on their merits now is scheduled for Feb. 23 by the house committee on post-war military planning, of which Rep. Clifton Woodrum (D. Va.) is chairman, the Legionnaires have been in. formed. n = 2 EARLIER hearings had been planned, but were postponed because of the more pressing nae tional war service law demafided of congress by President RO06E. velt. Sometimes referred to as “unie versal service,” this proposed measure to control wartim: labor has

... greatly handicapped + peace-time

military training proponents by causing the two to be confused, Legion headquarters said. Pointing to the fact that they now have 300,000 world war II veterans as paid-up members, the Legionnaires feel that they do not have to wait until “the boys get back” before acting on post-war training. That has been a stall used by antagonists of their bills, they say. What they want is ace tion now, or just as soon as possible. sw» IN SETTLING for a six-month, instead of one-year training period, they feel that the matter can be speeded greatly and pre sent full equipment and facilities of our wartime army be continued in use as soon as the war is over, This they point out would affect a great savings. And they stress the fact that it is their purpose fo fry and see that no young American misses his training period. Their bills provide he can take it between the ages of 18 and 22, or at 17 with parents’ consent. .

__ "Although Sra ‘with Gen, fy Marshall that it takes a full

year of training to make an expert soldier, they point out that we now .are sending men into combat outfits as replacements who only have had the basig training course of 17 weeks. Six months they say, while not perfect, would be acceptable.

We, The Women Women Gladly, Pass Up These Jobs for Men

By RUTH MILLETT

WHILE MANY women in ine dustry say they would like to keep on with their “men’s work™ after the war—there probably isn't a war wife in the country who isn't looking forward to the day when she can turn loose- i of all the “men’s jobs” she has taken on for the duration. As far as the war wife is concerned she hasn't found men’s work -— around the house, that is —the least hit fascinating.

SHE'LL GLADLY give her man back the job of mowing the lawn, firing the furnace, worrys ing about the plumbing, locking up the house and putting the car in the garage at night, putting down a heavy parental foot; bee ing an out-of-doors pal to the kids, balancing the..check book, and making small Tepain around the house. Furthermore, she will never try to convince him that she did those jobs as well or even betier than he did them. It's his work, and there is going’ to be no argument from the little woman about her having estabe lished seniority rights in his abe sence, ;

He can step right back into his :

Gites

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