Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 March 1945 — Page 17

No Coupon

men's 4 to)

, 7411) TLLED

pt.

_Hoosier Vagabond

: IN THE WESTERN PACIFIC (Delayed).—One of the first friends I made aboard our aircraft carrier was a tall, well-built, mustached sailor named Jerry “ Ryan. . : "He wears dungarees, smoke a pipe sometimes, and always wears his sleeves rolled up. He's from Davenport, Iowa, but his wife is living in Indianapolis He ig a boilermaker first glass, Jerry served one hitch in the navy before the war. He knows all the little ins and outs of how to get along. Everybody likes him, He isn't’ especially talkative, yet it's safe to say he knows. more people than anybody else on the ship. : Ryan is what is known in .the * navy as “a good man,” He's skilled in his work, he's dependable, and he's very smart He'd die before he'd curry favor with anybody. He's the kind an officer can depend on utterly—if that officer plays square with Ryan. But he gets & pretender so quickly it would make your head swim. Ryan's concept of right and wrong is very sharply drawh, and the Irish in him doesn't hesitate when a crisis comes. The other boys were telling me of an incident.

When Jap Bombs Struck IT WAS one of the days when Jap bombs hit his ship, off the Philippines. A great ‘hole was torn in the deck. Several men were killed and many wounded. Bodies of their comrades were still lying mangled on the deck. A sailor came up to look’at the damage, and said almost exultingly, “Oh boy, this 1s great. Now at last they'll have to send us back to America for repairs.” ; : Without saying a word, Ryan turned and knocked him down. Ryan runs what is known as the ‘oil shack.” From this little domain the condensers are regulated. He has dials and gauges and a phone and a clip ‘board on which are kept hourly records of oil pressures and water levels and all that stuff The “shack” is a little room about the size of an apartment kitchenette, with a metal workbench and drawers full of tools, and one folding canvas stool. Ryan's oil shack is a social center. There is always somebody hanging around. You can get a

By E

TE We

nie Pyle

cup of coffee there, look at sea shell flection. see|

card tricks, or find out the latest rumo on the bridge five minutes ago. . Jerry ‘brews coffee for his guests in. a nickel plated pot over an electric grill. The pot has a red hash mark for a hitch of service in the navy. And soon he is going to award it the purple heart. It got dented in the Philippines” typhoon, Some nights we pop corn in the “oil shack.” The boys’ folks send them corn in ~cans, and they beg butter from the galley, and pop ‘er up in a skillet on the grill. One of Ryan's friends who comes to eat popcorn

s that started

is a Negro—a tall; athletic fellow from his home|

town of Davenport. They were on the ship together tor a vear before they found out they were from the same place.

Wes Knows Basketball THE COLORED boy's name is Wesley Cooper. He is a cook. He was a star athlete back home. He's the best basketball player in the whole crew. When he gets done with the war, he has a scholarship waiting for him at the University of Iowa, Wesley comes down to the shack almost every right after supper. He smokes a curved stem pipe, and holds one hand up to it; and listens and grins and doesn't say much We were popping corn one night. One of the boys said, “Wes, how about getting us some more butter?” And another one said, “Wes, bring some salt, will you?” And a third said, “And bring me a sandwich when you come down, will you Wes?" And Wes grins and his white teeth flash and he said, “I suppose you'd like for me to go up and cook you a whole meal?” And he never made a move, Ariother of my best friends is Howard Wilson, a

posun's mate second class.’ Like Lt. Jimmy Van Fleet, |

the fighter pilot we wrote about, he is. from Findlay. In fact, they are good friends.

Trurnebout in. Wartime IN THOSE bygone years back in the old hometown, Jimmy Van Fleet used to go to Howard Wilson and borrow money when he got hard up. Now the younger Jimmy dwells in the comparative luxury of officers’ quarters, and the older Howard lives the lowlier life of a sailor, sleeping on a rack in a crowded compartment, and wearing dungarees That's the way things go in wartime.. Howard is old: and wise enough that it doesn’t bother him in the slightest. He accepts the war and his own lot calmly.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

THE CIVIC theater has disposed of the “live stock” it acquired as part of the props for the recent play, “You Can't Take It With You.” Two very young kittens were needed for the play. The props department found just the kittens. The only trouble was that they were part of a brood of four, only three weeks old, and thus too young to ‘be separated from the mother cat. As Director Jack Hatfield expressed it: “We needed two but had to fake five to get the two. But we only had to feed one” After the show closed, the kittens, a little older by then, were grabbed up by the theater personnel, and the mama cat went back -to its own home. . The boys at the Insurance Research & Review Service aren't sure whether to consider the 13th unlucky or lucky. It was on March 13, 1940, that their communicdtions with their French représentatives, Lloyd Sloane & Cie, Paris, were broken. That was bad luck, And it was exactly five years later, March 13, 1945, that they re-established contact and found most of the old staff out of concentration camps and ready to resume operations. That was good luck . Maj. Floyd C. Mims, who commanded the former prisoner of war camp at Ft. Harrison, sends one of those picture folders from Los Angeles. He is spending a few days there before reporting at Florence, Ariz. Unwelcome Visitor. ONE OF INSIDE'S agenis walked into Ayres’ ‘about 9:55 a. m. yesterday and. took the escalator. As she reached the third floor, she found the girls in. the lingerie department shrieking and running for cover. It took only a glance to reveal the trouble: A frightened pigeon, fluttering here and there, In-

America Flies

HOMER LEA, probably the greatest American military strategist, said years-ago in his “The Day of the Saxons”: “It the conflict is between an insular and a continental state, the sea becomes the first area of the struggle. If the insular state suffers defeat, its war is at an end, since 'a land defense by an insular nation against a continental pOwer in command of the sea becomes a political, military/and economic impossibility.” If American naval forces, air and sea, had been completely destroyed at Pearl Harbor and the building of an entirely new fieet was impossible, then we could have retired to our continent and ' continued the war retreating from the coast, moving our factories ahead of us, and fighting an indefinitely prolonged war, just as Russia did. 1f, on the other hand, we hadn't come to England's ald with our merchant marine, our naval and air forces, it is obvious that England (an insular power in Europe) would have lost her sea fleet in a desperate attempt to halt the Nazi invasion, spearheaded by airpower,

Nazis Blundered

CONTRARY to overthasty opinion, the Battle of Britain would not have changed that certainty of defeat for England, because the Nazis were out-building the English aircraft industry, and would have continued to do so. Hence, there would have been a succession ‘of battles of Britain against a ‘progressively weaker English air force, (As it was, the British themselves admitted subsequently that had the air pressure “continued for another day or so, the jig would have been up.) One of the greatest blunders the Nazis made was lo have avoided the British high seas fleet, a

My Day

GREENSBORO, N. ‘C., Wednesday. —I - reached New York city Monday aftérnoon, and in the evening

church at 129th st. and 7th ave. It was a community inter-denominational meeting in ceebration of brotherhood week. Dr. Robert W. Searles of the Greater New York Federation of Churches also spoke, and a united choir from many churches sang very beautifully, -» We made thé 10 o'clock ‘train for Greensboro, and arrived yesterday morning, unfortunately too late to go-to Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown's school at Sedalia, in which /'my mother-in-law was interested. I had a chance to go to the home of -my hostess, Mrs. Julius Cone, before Dr. and Mrs, David D. Jones bf Bennett college took’ us to the agricultural and technical college, wheré some thousand young colored people are getting a very good educatio® inshome eé®nomics, farming, horticulttire, ‘engineering and other fields. : Lo

After a very delightful lunch at Mrs. Cone’s, we

were at Bennett college at 2 o'clock, and had an opportunity fo see a number of the campus buildings * and to meet some of the faculty and students at tea. we went out to find school children from

- a Mn

side’s agent didn't stay to see the finish. . . . WwW. A Morgan, S. K. 2-c, sends a. néte from the Mariana islands boosting the idea of building a parking garage under University park. He saw mention of the plan in Inside Indianapolis for Jan. 31. He has seen the underground parking garage at San Francisco. “Other than being a fine addition to our fair city and lessening the parking problem,” he writes, “it would be one post-war project that would give a lot of dis-

charged vets a job they well could be proud of. P. S. |

Get P. W. Lesh; my old boss;-plugging for this.” Okay, Perry Lesh, get busy. . . . Now that the state has voted the money for three new. buildings on the Plaza, the forest of lamp posts will be thinned out a little. If the state wants to get rid of those displaced by the new buildings, the light company probably could put them to much better use. The utility is having trouble replacing boulevard lighting standards: that are broken. An Easter Gift’ MRS. JOHN BRUNNI, 1931 W. 58th, has received a premature Easter gift from her husband, a seabee petty officer in Bermuda. The gift was a sheaf of Bermuda lilies. - Some of the flowers were in full bloom, but there were enough buds to assure flowers for Easter. ... Bill Burns, ane of the original OPA staffers, reports for induction Saturday. among the first eight or 10 employees of the old tire board, which was started Jan. 5, 1942, and which preceded OPA. itself. When he leaves, the only remaining members of the original group will be OPA Director Jim Strickland snd Marie Schmauss, originally his secretary. ... Double congratulations are being received by Dean William H. Crawford of the 1. U. school of dentistry. In one week, he was chosen to head the dental school at the University of Minnesota, and became the father of an 8-pound son, Guy William, born at Coleman hospifal.

By Maj. Al Williams

He was|

SECOND SECTION

By ALLAN L. SWIM Scripps-Howard Staff Writer CINCINNATI, O.; March #£22.— Procter & Gamble took care of its employees during the depression— ahd the employees are taking care of Procter & Gamble now. Here's how: i Hard times hit Cificinnati and 11 other cities where there were P. & G. soap plants. Long lines formed at employment offices and soup kitchens. Procter & Gamble workers began to worry about their jobs. Sure, the company had a workguarantee plan. But— Soap sales were down, piling up in warehouses. knew how long the would last, whether it would get | worse, whether the work guarantee

could continue. » n n

Soap was Nobody

IT DID continue. Procter & Gamble did ‘some belt-tightening. It tried some “make-work” schemes. In three plants, for. a short time, it reduced the regular work ‘week 25 per cent. But the work guarantee withstood ‘its drastic test, and no employees protected by it were laid off. . Take-home pay of the conipany’s employees dropped 25 per cent from (One in a Series) the 1929 level—but this compared with a depression cut of about 50 per cent for industry in general. Came the war, the vast armament program, and the troubles of many industries in holding their forces of skilled workers. The depression picture was reversed. The problem became one of more jobs than people to fill them. And in this new situation the Procter & Gamble work-guarantee plan has paid dividends. ” » » CONTINUED manufacture of soap was -a wartime must, essential to military -as well as civilian health. High- turnover of workers

in P. & G. plants could have interfered with it seriously. | But actual turnover among the company’s factory employees, for (three wartime years, has averaged only 3.9 pér cent'a month, according to Stewart Lowry, director of industrial relations. It was much higher—13. per cent a month— among temporary workers and those not yet under the guarantee of regular employment. However, it was a mere 1 per cent a month among those qualified, by length of service, for the guarantee. In other words, Procter & Gamble have lost an average of only one out of 100 experienced workers ‘a {month since: the war began. This is considered an amazingly ‘low rate. . » ” » IT WAS in 1923 that Procter &

| Gamble decided to guarantee at |

| least 48 weeks of work a year to its hourly-rate workers. William Cooper Procter, president _of the-eompany and grhndson fof its: founder, saw his confidence

They Work

he Indiana

THURSDAY, MARCH 22,

depression ,

I ae ———c ord wp an: nc pm

olis

1945

A GUARANTEED ANNUAL WAGE; A VITAL IS SUE FOR ALL AMERICANS—

With a Different Spirit

4 ri | IN 3 8

h]} be ha

SYMBOL OF.STEADY WORK .., Though many of the nation’s industrial machines stood idle during the depression, manufactifing” equipment of Procter & Gamble—Such as this big soap blowing tower —kept in motion, though slowed down. Result was that company employees retained their purchasing | power and the company itself made good on its guarantee of regular employment.

THE REAL THING . . . Richard R. Deupree (above), president of Procter & Gamble Co, says there's no substitute for steady work. His organization practices what he preaches.

tive bargaining. P. & G. directors \reserve the right, in emergencies, ito reduce the normal work week by {25 per cent without invalidating the |guarantee. ‘ A | In 1938 it covered 95.7 per cent of all hourly rate workers. That percentage is now down to about 172, because workers hired to replace employees who have gone to the {armed services are not -included in rthe-plan.-Since. 1924 no permanent

seapower almost devoid of carrier forces, instead of (hat the plan would work vindi-|émployees have “been 1aid off be-

seeking it out and smashing it at the outset: On thls line of reasoning, we come back to Japan.

ing—or what is left of it—and to venture joining battle with ‘our naval task forces means suicide, In fact, without airpower protection, it is doubtful if her fleet, ever will ges a chance to fire a single broadside against an’ American naval force, | Undoubtedly, Japan is rushing the production of ! new air forces for a last stand against American naval airpower. The -end- is inevitable. Seasoned and increasing in strength every day, our naval air forces someday will destroy the last Jap fighter and bomber | based on the Jap home airdromes. |

Too Late for Japan

THEN WHAT? sea and air task forces completely surrounding Japan, facing nothing but Jap anti-aircraft gunfire. There is no U. S. to comeé to Japan's aid. She, having lost command of the sea and command of the air over the sea, has also lost command of the air over her homeland. Thereupon, we change from high altitude B-29 bombing of Japanese aircraft and munitions factories to pin-point dive-bombing, ground strafing and destruction of the heart of the Jap resistance. There are only about six large cities controlling the economic life of Japan. They are all in the southern section, and all cramped within a comparatively small area, , , It's too late for the panicky Jap warlords to move their production facilities to the mainland of Manchuria. That's out, because they didn't anticipate or expect the bombing they are getting today.” Every aircraft factory destroyed in Japan means a shorter war, home-based plane is shot down, I can see the Japs folding fast. Break Japan in this fashion, and we won't have to invade with land forces. §

By Eleanor Roosevelt

the colored public schools gathered on the campus with a few of their elders. I talked to them, and later was ‘interviewed on the local one of the women broadcasters. Spring -has come and is in full bloom down here. Every flowering shrub and tree is out, and the garden of this delightful home, as well as everywhere we have been today, réminds you that spring will be with us even in the north before long. It is so warm that I have been wondering why I thought it necessary to wear a coat, and by.the time we “came home at half-past four I was quite ready for a nice, peaceful hour or two before dinner and the evening speech at Bennett college. Bennett college is having a week’s institute on “The Returning Serviceman,” and Miss Katherine Lenroot has already spoken to them. As we drove in this afternoon two high school boys were waiting, camera in hand ; . . They reminded me of the professional photographers, because: they took at least six photographs and then asked me to wait until they changed to a color film. Insatiable, just as the professional ones. I have read a magazine article which deals with all the peoples living on all the small islands in the Pacific which we find now under our control. If we retain the responsibility for any of them; we will have the added problem of establishing new standards of living in that area, where human rights have never been given much attention, i

* k » ix &

Well, I can see our entire naval |

‘cated long before he died, in 1934.

{cause of lack of work for them.

i E . ; . f a is hid The plan guarantees work—not | Bow She, wo, is dn. insular power, HEF suriace eet 1s hld- wages. An employee comes under] “I CONSIDER the most impor-

it after 24 months of continuous service, He is guaranteed ‘regular employment for not less than 48 weeks

(or its time equivalent) in each cal-| - “When men have that assurance, |once

endar year, less time lost by rea-|they work .with a different spirit|could’ understand the Japanese. I json of holiday closings, vacations|than those who keep one eye on ,

tant. thing in our relationship with our employees is to assure them steady work,” says Richard R. Deupree, Procter & Gamble president.

with pay, disability due to sickness|the order spindle to see whether or injury, voluntary absence, or due they'll have jobs next week.”

to fires, floods, emergency ...” " ” » ALTHOUGH there

strikes or other

is no wage

(that only when absolutely necessary |is an employee shifted to a job | |that pays less than his accustomed rate. Théy have not attempted to |guarantee work in the company's | Southern oil plants, holding that operations there are too seasonal. The company deals with an A. F. {of L. union in one soap plant, with |independent unions in the others,

| - |but the guarantee is company-con-

This oldest plan of its kind wasn't |instituted without difficultes. The {company had to enlarge its warehouse facilities greatly, step up

guarantee, company officials say|advertising, develop new processes

It had to abandon its practice of using job-

{and selling techniques.

{bers and sell direct to the retail

trade. Best proof that the company likes the plan is the fact that it {has been kept for 21 years. Best proof that employees like it is the fact that so many of them have stuck to their jobs during the war.

NEXT: Murray and Johnston

trolled and not subject to collec-| Speak.

Up Front With Mauldin

And when the last factory and the last Jay |

J “War romance. It won't last.”

AT LEAST 48 WEEKS’ WORK . . . Procter & Gamble employees | like the one shown above at a machine that weighs soap for milling | know they will be unemployed not more than four weeks a year. | The company’s average over the last 10 years has been 50 weeks of work a year for all regular employees. |

‘Marines Amazed af Japs ——|

Ability to Fight on Iwo

United Press Staff Correspondent GUAM, March 99 _ Someone Usually the Japanese tried to said. "the Athericans {figure out a way to. sell their lives as dearly as possible. ‘One Jap soldier was seen just inside the mouth of a cave. Marines were afraid to enter the cave to get him, fearing a trap. He was asked to come out and surrender but he refused. Marines were forced to shoot him. Gulped Water

| sniped steadily until {found and killed.

they were

never

bens {think he had something there be-| | cause it was-impossible to determine | what made them fight the way they | {did on bloody Iwo Jima. Veteran marines who had seen the. enemy in person before would | One . A } gather around Jap prisoners and ne intelligent looking prisoner,

shake their heads in wonderment.| Who had been on a field gun until I heard one of them say: | it was knocked out, had to run in a |

“They just can’t be the little | ©4¥8 to await a chance to surrender. | blankety-blanks who've been giving] lie Indicated he had not been] BE. 50 auch. trouble” | suffering for lack of water. He! That seemed to be the general | hen gulped down two full canteens | and asked for a third. The Japs must have known from | the start they were going to lose! Iwo despite their magnificent de-| fenses. One prisoner was heard to say bitterly that he had not seen a Jap plane or ship after D-day and| “no matter what people say, this is! a war of planes and ships.” ! In one instance, four Japs killed

this island. { It ‘was difficult to look at thase grinning. “little, close-cropped pris|oners who stood. twitching and| | scratching, and realize they were responsible for the terribly artillery, mortar, machine-gun and rifle fire| that took such a toll of American|

lives. themselves in caves, They left a None Seemed Unhappy note addressed to “the enemy” sayNot one of the prisoners we took|ing they couldn't stave off the ma-| on Iwo Jima ever seemed dour or|rines’ strength, men or equipment unhappy. All of them looked afl = ~==mrmmmramim—ee—"gcea—_—_, " { their surroundings with interest.| They jabbered to themselves and | HANNAH < readily agreed to orders given them | by our marines. They cast longing | glances at our canteens For men who ‘had been dealing] jout death, they looked harmless. | | You couldn't help thinking you'd like to match 10 of them unarmed | against 10 similarly unarmed marines in a free for all. _The-dact that. we lad. prisoners|

testified that mot all Jap fighting | men decided to fight to the death for the emperor. Some chose suicide, others an opportune moment to surrender. . Many who chose "to fight until death often would do so in a spectacular way, such as charging sin-gle-handedly. into a group of marines. Instances such as a formal surrender were extremely rare, It was generally believed larger numbers of Japanese would have surrendered | except that their officers threatened tiem at the point of a gun. ah Fast With Guns Also it must be remembered that] surrendering in a close fight in| rugged, cave-infested terrain was difficult. Marines are fast men! with guns—and they had to be. | ‘Japs who posted themselves singly |

.| as snipers caused many casualties "and slowed up entire Joti. They ' { t (| »

‘ .

Times

- CETERA TE SD

PAGE 15

-Labor Hope Gaining For Settlement In Coal Dispute

By FRED W. PERKINS

WASHINGTON, March 22, — Hope is rising that the country will get by this year without a great coal strike, such as punctuated the John L. Lewis controversy of 1943. The hope is not much more than a hunch among observers, but there is some evi. dence that the differences of coal operators and the United Mine Workers are not so deep as they were two years ago. One item is that the federal government has made no open move to bring the parties into gereement prior to midnight March 31, when the wage contract expires. » ” ” JUST TWO years ago today President Roosevelt asked the miners ‘and operators to continue coal production under the old contract, with the understanding that if the new agreement provided for a wage adjustment it would be retroactive from April 1. There has been no symptom of such a federal move in this year's negotiations, although two representatives of the conciliation service have been on the conference sidelines, and Secretary Frances Perkins has expressed her readiness to go through the usual’ “ritual” of asking an extension of the current contract. At this stage two years ago one group of operators had asked for active intervention by the government, on the ground that Mr. Lewis’ controversy was not with the industry but with the wagefreeze policies of the war labor board. = - " MR. LEWIS directed many of his barbs at the WLB and particularly its chairman, William H. Davis. Mr. Lewis inferentially has recognized the board’s authority, apparently because it. is now backed by an act of congress.

In his opening statement this year he declared the union's wage demands are “in conformity with and not in violation of the antiinflation policies of the U. S. government.” » » » OTHER STRAWS in the wind: Charles O'Neill, chief - operator spokesman, and Lewis have held a session ‘with the press, in which they made the usual ahd apparently sincere denunciations of each other's attitude—and as they left, began calling each other “Charlie” and “John” again. Mr. O'Neill's purpose was to report the unanimous judgment of the operators’ committee “that it does not believe any progress has been made toward a settlement.” Far darker statements have been followed by agreements in past negotiations. . Fame Latest development is the beginning of small huddles, one and two ‘men on-a side, between the miners and operators. That is where the real bargaining is done. o) v

impression of .all- our marines on I.

We, the Wome Service Wives Welcome New Army Ruling

By RUTH MILLETT

THE ARMY has at last made ~up its mind that a wife's first responsibility is to her marriage— even if*the wife has gone into uniform for the duration. The war department has announced that any woman serving in the army’ overseas may request and obtain duty in the United States if her husband is returned home from permanent overseas assignmen t whether for reassignment, pitalization or honorable charge.

hos-

dis-

» n » is I t90 bad that women were not promiseq4 that much consideration early in the war. For if they had been, many a young war wife might have been interested in' getting into uniform -and helping to fill the quofas of women RS-a8 JX JAIN: nurses, dieticians ‘and physical therapy aids. But many of them were held back by the thought, “I might find myself stuck in a foreign assignment while my husband was back in the United States.” Nobody can blame a woman for letting such a possibility deter her from serving her country-rbe-cause. women have always put their marriages first and have been taught it is their duty to do so,

ay ”

WOMEN are needed in modern war and they an perform valuable services. But they can't be treated exactly as men are treated. Not unless they are educated to think—as men think--that In wartime duty to one's country ‘must be put above even marriage