Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 April 1945 — Page 15

| Hoosier Vagabond

By Ernie Pyle

(In addition to {he Exnie Pyle column which appears here foday, we will print several others just re-

ceived from : Okinawa. death.)

OKINAWA (By Radio).—Back nearly two years ago when I was with Oklahoma's 45th division in Sicily and later in Italy, I learned they had a number of Navajo Indians in communications, When secret orders had to be given over the phone these boys gave them to one another in Navajo. Practically nobody in the world understands Navajo except another Navajo. Well, my regimént of 1st division marines has the same thing. There are about eight Indians who do this special work. They are good marines and very proud of being 80.4 There are two brothers among

them, both named. Joe. Their last”

names are the ones that are dif- ’ ferent. 1 guess that’s a Navajo custom, though I never knew of it before, One brother, Pic. Joe Gatewood wen* to the Indian school in Albuquerque. In fact our house is on the very same street, and Joe said it sure was good to see somebody from home. Joe has been out here three years. has flve childgen back home whom he would like to see. He Wis wounded several months ago ‘and got the Purple Heart. Jue's brother is Joe Kellwood, who has also been out here three years. A couple of the others are Pfc. Alex Williams of Winslow, Ariz, and Pvt. Oscar Carroll of Ft, Defiance, Ariz, which is the capital of the ‘Navajo reservation. Most of the hoys are from around Ft. Defiance and used to work for the Indian bureau.

Stage Ceremonial Dance THE INDIAN BOYS knew before we got to Okinawa that the invasion landing wasn’t going to be very tough. They were the only ones in the convoy who did know it. For one thing they saw signs and for another they used their own influence. Before the convoy left the far south tropical island where the Navajos had been training since the Jast campaign, the boys put on a ceremonial dance.

He is 34 and

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

JAKE MILLI, the light company’s customer serve fce supervisor, is thoroughly convinced that not all the booby traps are on the war front. Jake, who lives at 2702 Napoleon st., takes a lot of pride in his home, and_ spends much time working on it. Monday night, : he was engaged in painting .the woodwork in - the dining room. Along about 9 p. m., he was paint#ing a window seat. Close to the seat was a hot air register, the cever for which he had removed and painted. The heat coming up the uncovered register proved annoying, so he covered the register hole with a couple of folded newspapers. A few minutes later the phone, which temporarily was on the floor nearby, rang. Jake started toward it to answer and—yep, you guessed right—stepped on the papers covering the register. ‘His foot went on through the elbow in the —pipe, skinning his—shin—The phone continued ringing and Jake, muttering under his breath, crawled to it on hands and knees, and answered. A lilting feminine voice, he says, inquired: “Good: evening; I Just wanted to see if you are carrying all the hospitalization insurance you need, and if your family is’ adequately protected.” Jake recalls shouting “No,”

and hanging up.- He can’t -remember whether the-

“No” was preceded by a bit of profanity. Anyway, he hopes the young lady who called reads this story and understands why he was so curt with her.

It Docsi’t Mean That

” A SINGLE STARTLING word — “SIN” — greets

your gaze as you approach the Singer Sewing Machine Co. store (in the Claypool building) from the west. The word is on one of the two large windows on the alley side of the store. After the first hurried glance, the spectator realizes the word isn't a sugegestion to deviate from the straight and narrow. It's merely that the glass in one of the windows had

to be replaced, and the rest of the store's, pame hasn't

yet ‘béen “paifited on the’ new glass. . .. Miss Fetne: V. Moore, teacher at School 45, lost her purse out of

A ica Fli THE PASSING of Ernie Pyle recalls many memories- of years ago. When I first met Ernie he was the aviation editor of The Washington News. Aviation news of those days largely was confined to the progress of feuding between the army and navy; with a dash of commercial aviation—such as it- was. Every service airman stationed in Washington knew Ernie. The unassuming little guy with the pleasant smile got around and everybody called him Ernie. He wrote his flying news so that lay folks could understand it. Some of us came to know Ernie mighty well. We were in the thick of a losing fight to awaken the country to what we thought we saw coming in the form of airpower. And to do this we had to attack deeply entrenched traditional prejudices. It was Ernie who often dropped a wise word of caution which saved a few lads I know from officially breaking their precious recks. It was Ernie who sat next to me and covered my congressional fight—and I still preserve a copy of what Ernie had to say about that battle for high speed research so we would know how te build high speed fighters when we needed them.

Warm Human Interest

ERNIE QUICKLY caught the technical significance of an aviation story, but, as so highly developed in his later writings, he probed with the delicate touch of a sensitive instinct until he found the deep, underlying stream of warm human interest

My Day

HYDE PARK, Wednesday.--I had to go around 80 actively with executors and “hppraisers all’ ‘day yesterday, that I almost forgot to stop and really enjoy the country. Many years ago I learned that nature had more to ‘give, from the healing point of view, than any human being. As I awoke very early this morning and heard the first birds twittering around my porch, I realized what a great joy the fresh green leaves and the return of the birds in the springtime always. are. This season lifts the spirit, no matter how busy one may be. Those few minutes in the early morning are sure to bring to mind 4 the words of the psalmist: “Lift | up thine eyes unto the hills from whence cometh | my help.” ] We walked tonight up to the top of the hill back of my cottage and saw the sun go down. *It appeared | 50 flamingly through the trees that I thought a house . was on fire. 1 Then, as we came home, the -rain began to fall | very gently—that soft spring rain which gives you the feeling you can almost see things grow. My lilies-of-the-valley are just young green shoots | coming up out of the ground; bik sn the. garden of -of the big house, Where they are better protected, flowers

We believe Ernie would have wanted his stories to go through despite his tragic

The Red Cross furnished some colored cloth ana paint to staily their faces. They made up the rest of their Indian costumes from chicken feathers, sea shells, coconuts, empty ration cans and rifle cdrtridges. : Then they did their own native ceremonial chants and dances out there under the tropical palm trees with several thousand marines as a grave audience. In their chant they asked the great gods in the sky to sap the Japanese of their strength for this blitz. They put the finger of weakness on the Japs. And then they ended their ceremonial chant by singirig the marine corps song in Navajo, I asked Joe Gatewood if they really felt their dance had semetHing to do with the ease of our landing and &he said thie boys did believe so and were very serious about it, himself included. “I knew nothing was going to happen to us,” Joe said, “for on the way up here there was a rainbow over the convoy and T knew then everything would be all right.”

Few Cattle On Okinawa

ONE DAY I was walking through the edge of a rubbled Okinawa village where marine telephone linesmen were stringing wire to the tops of the native telephone poles. As I passed, one of the two linesmen at the top called down rather nervously saying he was afraid the wobbly pole was going to break under their weight. To which one of the men on the ground, apparently their sergeant, called back reassuringly: “You've got nothing to worry about. That's imperial Japanese stuff. It can't break.” There are very few cattle on Okinawa but there are lots of goats and horses. The horses are small like western ponies and mostly bay or sorrel. Most of them are skinny, but when you see well-fed ones

The

Indianapolis

SECOND SECTION *

Times

they are good-looking horses. They are all well broken and tame. The marines have acquired them by the hundreds. Our company alone has more than 20. The boys put their heavier packs on them but more than that they

Just seem to enjoy riding them up and down the

country roads.

her car near 21st ard Central Monday and found it waiting for-her when she got home. The purse was found by another Mrs. Moore—Mis. D. J. Moore, 3609 Salem, and her daughter, Mrs. D, E. Campbell. Mrs. Campbell, noting the owner's name and address on a ration book, took the purse to Miss Moore's home in Woodruff Place and waited there until the teacher arrived. . . . Add business notes: Art Overbay is planning to move his Typographic Service inte the old Abbott Laboratory building on Senate ave. and eventually convert the building into a Graphic Arts building. . . . And J. B. Lanagan, president of the Nik-O-Lok Co., has purchased the old Salvage Corps building on E. New York st. to serve as a manufacturing plant for his firm. He expects to move in in about 30 days. .

A Difficult Task

WORKERS BUSILY sorting the used clothing collected in the United Nations relief drive Sunday received a call from an excited housewife yesterday. “Has my husband’s suit gone yet?” she asked. Told that her husband's suit was inextricably ‘mixed in about 750 tons of clothing, she wailed that she had forgotten to remove a $10 bill from the pocket of the suit. - Another caller, a “North Side resident, phoned in to ask the workers to sort out her son's hunting clothes, which she had donated. There were some shotgun shells in the clothes, she said, and, since shotgun shells are hard to find, wouldn’t someone please return them? The shells, being in hunting clothing, will be a little easier to retrieve than the $10 bill. Incidentally, there's a desperate shortage of volunteer help at the Coliseum where the clothing is being sorted. To volunteer, call George Smith at MA. 5361. . . . John Vondersaar, MOMM.3-¢, who is

Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius Jr. addresses the delegates as the plenary session of the United Nations conference opens in San He is flanked by (left to right) Alger Hiss, acting conference secretary,

Francisco. Lapham of San Francisco.

(Left to right, second row) Rep. Sol Bloom (D. N. Y.), Rep. Charles Eaton (R. Stassen, Dean Virginia Gildersleeve;

ister Anthony Eden and Deputy Prime Minister Clement Attlee.

aboard ship in the Pacific, wrote home that he heard Radio Tokyo on the air with recordings. of voices of | American prisoners. One, he wrote, was an Indian- | apolis boy who wished his father to know he was in| good health and all right. The prisoner's name sounded like “Floyd Allison”—although it might have | been Ellison—and the father’s name was given as “Victor - Allison, Tacoma st.” The sailor's family has

ARSE GL To docate “the * Allisons and thought ascesT.]

word might. be passed along by’ this' column.

By Maj. Al Williams,

factors. And then—Pyle fashion—he told his story as only he could tell it. Furthermore, Ernie never became greater than the men he wrote about, and in this critical angle he differed from the usual run of air writers. There's been a deepening public nostalgia in this land for reality, for the warm homey fundamentals of old-fashioned Americanism. And nowhere was this nostalgia more evident than in the popular turning of everyday, ordinary people to Ernie’s daily column. 1 remember the first time I took Ernie as a passenger in a Navy two-seater fighter, his cool smile as I lashed him up in his payachute and his remark as I passed along a few directions as to what to do with that chute ring—when, as, and if- -

Ernie's Confession

THIS LITTLE, frail guy had a great soul deep ‘down inside, and a heart to take whatever came his way. Zrnie just sat there, keenly alert, seeing everything, registering everything, Scared—as he told me later. Sure, he came right out with the confession, not as the special confidence of a secret, but just his honest, human reaction for which he was sure no explanation was necessary, With these memories of the Ernie Pyle of other days I have never been surprised at his understanding of our boys’ real thoughts and his ability to tell the story so everyone could understand it. He marched and lived through thick and thin with the G. Is on combat fronts—asking no favors of man or fate, We are all designed according to the same general

NEW COMMANDER OF V. F. W, POST SEATED

Thomas H. Hughes was installed | maroon, of the: Sgt. ~Ralph | Barker post, Veterans of Foreign | Wars, and Cora B. Hopkins ‘as president of the ladies’ auxiliary |

| Roo,

Elwood 15 Honor: onor

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 1945

PAGE 15

Governor Earl Warren

The honor guard and flags of the United Nations are in the background.

N. J.), Cmdr. Harold

(first. row) two members of the British embassy, then Foreign Min-

Willkie's Memory I

WOOD, April 26 (U. P.).— of Elwood high school as the Wendlei{: Fo Willkie high school on May 16 was planned today by residents in memory. of their most

| tinguished native son.

at joint ceremonies Tuesday in the| | clubhouse. Other new officers of the post are, George W. Kleopfer, senior vice | commander; Richard Roudebush, junior vice commander; Alfred L.| Chew, quartermaster; Harold Reed, | service officer; Peter F. Archer] chaplain; Donald McClure, post| advocate; Jacob Silbernagel, officer of the day; Arthur V. Vitz, pub-| licity director, and Charles J. Gerth, trustee. Other officers of the ladies’ auxiliary are Edith DeWitt, senior vice president; Ethel Cully, junior vice president; Helen F. Bundy, treasurer; Eleanor B. Hopkins, secretary; Lelia Foisey, chaplain; Bertha Elliott, conductress; Clarabelle Pressley, patriotic instructor; Eve Harder, guard; Mary Triece and Mary Richie, trustees. Charles L. Hopkins, past state | commander, installed the men offt- | cers, and Ethel M. Griffith of |

Bloomington, national patriotic in-|12th air force in Italy. His outfit

structor of the organization, in-|

ducted the auxiliary officers.

| civic building was

Governor Gates of Indiana and h i s predecessory Ex-Governor Henry F. Schricker, were invited to participate in the ceremonies, marking the- beginning of an extensive -memorial community hopes to carry out.

dis- |

President Edgar G. Ball of the

Elwood Willkie Memorial commit-

program the |

tee, said that an educational or |?

planned as |

another tribute to the 1940 Repub- |

lican presidential nominee. Willkie’s philosophy of “equality of opportunity for every race and every nation,” expressed in his book, “One World,” would be taught in the memorial structure. Ball also visioned the possibility of a political science college here to prepare leaders for the U. 8. role in world affairs,

CORPORAL ASSIGNED Cpl. Jeremiah D. Sheehan, son of |

| { | | |

Mrs. Julia J. Sheehan, 1217 E. Ver- |

mont st., has been assigned to a| veteran troop carrier group of the)

has been awarded the distinguished | | unit citation.

Up Front With Mauldin

plan—the same number of bones, the same aches and | the same wants. The big, distinguishing difference is in the intensity of that little light way down deep inside which we call a soul.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

*, «

The lilacs are out, and as we walked through the woods two white dogwood trees gleamed, almost in full bloom. Yes, the world does: live again. Perhaps nature is our best assurance of immortality.

Miss Thompson still sits with clothesbaskets of |

mail surrounding her. When we discovered today that her ration books had been mailed to her, ale thcugh she has not yet received them, we decided they were probably among the few thousand unopened letters. It is miraculous to me that she is able to find most of the really important mail. For instance, letters announcing what trains people will artive on, or what I must do to get fuel oil for my cottage these chilly ‘nights, all seem to be found in spite of the confusion. One of my friends whom I have not seen for some time—Mr. Eliza Keates Young, who lives in the small rural community of Milton, just across the river from us-4sent me a verse which may be a comfort to a great many whose dear ones are meeting death in the ‘war. It reads: “They are not dead who live in lives they leave behind: In those whom they have blessed they live a a life again.” So many mothers and wives write me that life has ceased to have a meaning since the man -they loved so dearly has left the world. Buf that little veike

should make us work to make our lives something |

Bp rt

i GETS PRISON TERM

hich. the wasrior woud, feel, Worthy of Jib. sas-

UNITED NATIONS OPEN HISTORIC CONFERENCE AT 'SAN FRANCISCO

Stettinius Addresses Plenary Session

Acme Telephotos

of California, and Mayor Roger

V. M. Molotov, Russian commissar, listens to the address by President Truman.

President Truman as he spoke from the White House.

i HOAX CHARGED BY VISITING WOMAN

A Yellow Cab driver today

was under | after a Hammond]

Mrs. Glenna Calvard said she and | her two small children hailed the

| cab downtown, asked to be driven to | 5013 Naomi st, in Drexel Gardens, | the home of her sister, { Lee Andrew Whyde, 25, she claimed, |

The driver, |

told her he would take them there for $2.50. At 1753 8S. Randolph st., she said | the driver told Her his battery was!

dead, but that her destination was |

“right around the corner.” She said | he told her he'd only charge her| $2. which she paid. He drove away and she started] to walk. She telephoned police who| picked up Whyde and charged him with failure to have the meter working in his cab. A police car was. ordered by Police Capt. John Ambuhl,to take Mrs. Calvard to her sister's home.

AS SLAYER OF WIFE

COLUMBUS, Ind, April 26 (U. P.).—William B. Dickinson, 46, charged with the gun death of his wife, Mrs. Dorothy Adams Dickinson, in Franklin, in° December of 1943, has been found guilty of voluntary ménslaughter by a jury in Bartholomew circuit court. Dickinson, a former Franklin powling alley employee, must serve ‘a mandatory two to 21 years sen- | tence. .He vreviously had been sen- | tenced to life imprisonment follow-

ine his first trial in Jginion circuit |

THAT WAILING SIREN

WAS A FIRE ALARM

Hundreds of persons in town Indianapolis this

|victory .in Europe had been announced when they heard the loud wailing of a siren. Police who got. scores of calls re-|

{ported that workmen repairing the) A. D. T. system at Kingan's had|

accidentally set off the fire alarm.

* HANNAH

down | morning | cocked their ears and wondered if}

Charge GO

Is Stalling A

On Trade Laws |

BY RAYMOND LAH United Press Staff Correspondent ~WASHINGTON, April 26. — Democrats on the house ways and means committee displayed signs of impatience today over what they regarded as Republican stalling on reciprocal trade legislation. As Secretary of Agriculture Claude R." Wickard was recalled for further testimony, Rep. John D. Dingell (D. Mich.) said he was prepared to demand a limitation on the time for questioning witnesses. In seven full days of testimony, the - committee has heard five of nearly 90 witnesses scheduled. to appear. The pending bill would extend the reciprocal trade agreements act three years beyond its expiration date June 12 and give the administration authority to cut tariff duties up to 50 per cent of existing rates. ” » ” DEMOCRATIC COMPLAINTS over ' Republican tactics were brought into the open for the first time during the hearing late vesterday when Dingell read into the record a newspaper editorial criticizing the Republican opposition and referring to a “filibuster.”

At the close of the hearing. Chairman Robert L. Doughton (D. N. C.), author of the bill, made it plain that he was becoming impatient. : Rep. Harold Knutson of Minnesota, ranking Republican member, commented that the Republicans had “gone along” with ‘the Democratic members on ” social security and tax legislation and that the parties were “poles apart” on the trade agreement issue. If a Democratic minority were in opposition, “he said, it would question witnesses at length “not to filibuster but to establish a case.” But Doughton cited the editorial reference to filibuster and said “the way it’s going, a bill will never come out.” “Well, you've given us an idea,” Knutson said. “You mean you didn’t have it before?” demanded Rep. Jere Cooper, (D. Tenn.).

WICKARD'S TESTIMONY late yesterday reiterated his belief that the reciprocal trade program was essential to post-war farm prosperity. Rep. Frank Carlson (R. Kas), indicated fear that agriculture was being slighted in the program because farm products were & declining proportion of the exe port total and an increasing proe portion of the imports. Wickard suggested that the trend was a natural one as the nation became more industrialized and said he viewell the actual amounts of farm exports and ime ports ‘as more, Hnportant factors,

- We, the Women — College Plans Housing for Young Couples

By RUTH MILLETT A SMALL Iowa college has announced that at the close of the war it will build on its campus an apartment house for married students, which will provide them with completely furnished and comfort a ble living quarters .. for $35 a month, including utilities. In making the announcement the president of the ! college said: : *“This generation believes in early marriages and I am inclined to look with favor upon them.” This school is just one of the many that today are facing the’ question of what to do with the married students who are already beginning to arrive on campuses under the G.I. Bill of Rights. Housing them is, of course, the big problem in most schools, " 5 2 FOR MARRIED students in the past haven't had much considera tion from colleges and univers sities.

On mest campuses, if a young couple decided that one or both would continue working for a col« lege degree after marriage, it was up to them to find whatever living quarters they could. Unless the couple were helped by wealthy parents, the rooms and apartments they could 2¥ord were usually not only dingy affairs, but often cold in winter, hot in summer, and completely lack« ing in conveniences. » » s “ THE MARRIED couples just had to struggle along under such living conditions because thw couldn't afford anything better, "And: it wasn't unusual for them - to have to spend so much fora roof over their heads, they could not afford the proper food. So if the G. I Bill of Rights ’ wakes ‘up college and universities to the need for proper housing for married students, as well as “single ones, 3 lasting good. win come of it, hii And perhaps in the future tower young people will have to che : between marriage and f

= ”

‘en education that will