Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 12 July 1948 — Page 11

AGAIN. Tennis is not a game of fun recreation and good * How come 10d since when? Since I attended fhe Western tourney at Woodstock Country Club, Of course, my ‘tennis .is' still for fun. But then the way I play it’s probably not temnis. At Jeast you don’t get djzxy watching my game. You're just dizzy to begin with if you watch. However, let's get back to the experts, There were a few things that I liked about the afternoon's work at Woodstock. Keep in mind that it was my first trip to top-notch tennis territory.

inside Indianapolis

By Ed Sovola

Most of the racket work om exhibition left me

with my mouth open. Also, there was a sound that delighted me no end. Kept my mouth open, too. Every oveghand and backhand smash sounded as if a bottle of champagne were being opened. Get the idea? Wwe might as well go into sounds a little further. It won't take long because in tournament play sounds are at a premium. In fact, outside of the champagne sounds, there aren't any sounds. Oh, an occasional round of applause but .that's about all. I could ‘never play in a tournament because my game consists of a great deal of whooping and hollering.

Learns to Keep Mouth Shut

JACK ROGERS, Woodstock tennis pro, introduced me to the idea of keeping my mouth shut. 1 thought I could use my vocal cords as I do at Victory Field. Shush, laddie. When I entered the area of competitive’ strife, I noticed the lack of auditory enthusiasm. Seemed strange to me. : “Hi, JACK,” I bellowed when I saw the pro. The look he gave me indicated he was in extreme

ain. P boy?” I

“What's the demanded. He pointed to the courts and placed his index finger across-his lips. Several spectators in the vicinity turned and stared. You know the type of stare I mean. It says, “Who is that uncouth creature?” Before Jack explained I got the idea. The contenders, Jack whispered, play under.a terrific strain and it's almost mandatory to have it quiet. “The umpires and the linesmen are the only ones who make any sound,” explained Jack. “Who's playing,” I asked in a faint whisper which pleased him. . Well, in court 1, Herbert Flam, Los Angeles, was batting the ball with Ervin Dorfman, New York. In court 2, Magda Rurac, Romania, and Margaret Varner, El Paso, Tex. silently and methodically warmed up under the hot sun. The ladies, I might add, played a brand of tennis you ordinarily don't see girls play. Their smashes didn’t sound as if a big bottle of champagne were being opened all’ the time, but, there were plenty to go around. Mr. Flam’s and Mr. Dorfman’s smashes sounded most of the time as if théy were opening barrels. My smashes sound like soda pop. By the time Mrs. Rurac got through pounding Miss Varner to win 6-2, 6-1, my neck was ready to fall off. I don’t think the champagne-opening complex I had developed had anything to do with

matter, Jack, ol

TENNIS TOURNAMENT—This is the way spectator Shirli Swartz looked to "Mr. Inside," who got dizzy watching Western tourney players "pop" the ball around. Ummmmm |. :

it. The ladies just hit the ball too fast from one side of the court to the other. Watching Mr. Flam and Mr. Dorfman on the other side of court 2 was worse. Ever try following a bullet? Fortunately the lobs change th: pace and allow a man to get his bearings every once.in a while.

There Should Be Soundless Ball

I FOLLOWED the example of a great many spectators by looking only at the net for a few minutes. It's quite relaxing. The only sounds are the pops which stir one's imagination out there in the syn and fresh air. Shirli Swartz, 4142 N. Meridian St, who watches the matches when she isn’t driving the tennis players to and fro in the club's station wagon, told me to concentrate on the game and I wouldn't get dizzy. “Don’t you think the smashes sound as if champagne bottles were being opened?” I asked. Miss Swartz listened for a few minutes and agreed. “Never thought about it in that way béfore,” she said. There was the answer to the problem. Somebody should invent soundless balls so I could concentrate on the game. After four matches my head was reeling. It could have been the sun. It could have been my neck-twisting. Then, it could have been that darn sound. Anyway, I ~couldn’t see straight.

Te ———————————————————————————————————

Gobs of Gloom

PHILADELPHIA, July 12—There was a song once, called “Gloomy Sunday.” It was so doleful that the Hungarians passed a law forbidding its playing—since it had sponsored an epidemic of suicides ~mong the downcast gentry. I am glad nobody piped that song through a public address system here yesterday. For the air would have been thick with dry-diving Democrats. A couple of weeks ago, you could sense the cockiness of the Republicans. No matter who got nominated, they figured they had a cinch winner, They clogged the streets and jammed the hotels.. They drank and cavorted. They spent money and hollered and cut up. : When Mr. Dewey and Mr. Warren copped the nod, the long-famished GOP dusted its hands on its britches and pegan to figure out how to spend the money again. Conversely, today, you can feel the Democratic despair. You can already smell the odor of defeat in the fall. This convention reminds. you of a conclave of the condemned, meeting out of wistful bravado, and glumly sure that nothing will come of it. This whipped-before-we-start attitude permeates the town. There does not appear to be half as many people, and none of the early, jubilant hysteria of the pre-convening Republicans. There isn’t even much rumor, because of a feeling that the Demoérats don't have anything worth rumoring about.

The Dissenters Mumble

EVEN THE presence of Justice Douglas, as a potential rival to Mr. Truman, might have fed a little fuel on the feeble flame of the Democrats’ election hopes. ] Gen. Eisenhower, of course, would have brought ‘he convention to life, for the spectacle of a President in process of being flouted by his party would have been soaked in drama.

By Robert C. Ruark

As it is, this is a meeting of has-beens, with small Immediate future. Far from being able to select a strong candidate to oppose Harry, the Truman-haters couldn't scare up a man with sufficient political sex appeal to whip Norman Thomas, let alone Tom Dewey. The dissenters still hold their huddles and mutter and. fume, but it is impotent mutiny. Their plight is roushly that of a crew forced to go to sea with ® captain they neither respect nor trust, but to whom, perforce, they must cling because no one Qf their member is stout enough to knock hinr off the e.

Farley Scolds the Rebels

YOU SEE Big Jim Farley around, and mind well the time when his presence would have carried authority, mystery, and drama. But yesterday, when Mr. Farley belabored the “renegade” Democrats for their Truman rebels lion, it was just a man scolding a few other men over something that didn’t matter much, anyhow. The few scattered old New Dealers looked lost and lonesome, as they wander around—and you remember a day when a battalion of reporters

The Indianapolis

SECOND SECTION

New Radio Meter Used in Checking

By JACK THOMPSON State traffic engineers are using a small metal box in an effort to halt the ever-increasing death

The box, which is called a speed meter, contaips a tiny radio receiver and transmitter. It em-

:|ploys the radar principle to de-

Jermiine the speed at which an

- automobile iravels along a road.

With the aid of the little engineers now are making spot checks of hazardous sections of highways in all parts of the state. » » » FROM data gathered a safe speed is calculated for a dangerous stretch of road and a speed Hmit is placed in efféot. Since the State Highway Department purchased the speed meter about four months ago. restrictions have been established along roads in several sections of the state.

And, though not enough information has yet been gathered to reach any definite conclusions, the engineers said there has been a moticeable decline in the number of accidents along restricted stretches. » ” » ®ALSO, the highway department is using the speed meter in cooperation with the state police to make speed surveys op heavily traveled roads.

Recently a survey of a stretch of Ind. 431 in Edgewood revealed that a majority of motorists passing through the zone exceeded the 30-mile-an-hour limit. State police issued courtesy tickets to these motorists. They warned all Indiana motorists that other surveys d be forthcoming and advis compliance with the speed limits. ® " .

THE courtesy ticket, it was pointed out, does not require a court appearance. However, a copy is filed with the department of public safety and may be used against a motorist in event of a future arrest. Three state police cars equipped with three-way radio sets are used in making 2 speed survey. The three-way radio is necessary to ‘enable direct communication between cars. One car is stationed near the radar set. The others are stationed at points two miles from the speed meter in either direction. » ” .

IF A CAR exceeds the speed limit, the patrol cars at the twomile posts are notified over the three-way radio and the speeding motorist is flagged down. Traffic éngineers said neither the spot checks or the speed surveys will be used to enforce speed laws but rather to make the

would have been clutching their lapels. The almost ridiculous plight of the Democrats in ’48 was capsuled on Walnut St. around the corner from Headquarters. There, yesterday, men were removing the name: “Eisenhower” from vivid signs which said “Efsenhower—People’s Choice for President.” All day

motoring public safety-minded.

MONDAY, JULY 12, 1948

WARNING TO SPEE

whisk along the highways.

Speeders, Beware: Radar Eye Is Checkin

go

DSTERS — The little gadget being operated by George Groves, engineer for the State Highway Commission, is a

traffic regulations

speed meter. With it he can tell just how fast Hoosier motorists

See "Plastic Age' Maturity |

long you could see just “People’s Choice for President,” looking forlorn—a promise without a prophet. | Then, in the dusk, there was activity ‘again. Three men, on stepladders, were busy painting, a new name under “People’s Choice For Pres-| ident.” There it was, in small red letters: Pepper.” In a way, it was more sad than funny.

IClaude|

Good Moanin’ PHILADELPHIA, July 12—These Democrats can moan all they want; the peace which has descended upon their convention, like rain from a dry-iced cloud, suits me right down to the lilywhite badge that entitles me to snooze through this week’s proceedings. No bands to keep me awake with sour renditions of the Four-Leaf Clover Song. No excited ladies to stick me with the pins of rival candidates. No wild taxi rides to wild-eyed press conferences. No free cheese sandwiches from a fellow named Stassen. What I'm trying to say in my own clumsy Way is that the contrast between the Democrats’ garden party and the brass-bound shindig of the Republicans a couple of weeks ago is startling. There was whoopla on Broad St. then; today there's a fat man in a jeep making a continuous speech to the passerby about what a fine President Ike /Eisenhower would make—if only he would. Not too many passersby, either. The vast baliroom where Tom Dewey's cohorts Were giving away black lace panties to lucky ladies last month is blank. The lights are dark, While the funeral parlor chairs upon which the

loyal Republicans suffered so valiantly, are stacked. .

Sees a Beautiful Democrat

AND WITH my own eyes I saw a beautiful Democrat from Texas using a leftover Win-With-Taft fan to stir up a breeze. Nobody protested this heresy. Nobody seemed to care. : So I wandering through the almost tmpty lobby of the Bellevue-Statford Hotel, where Publicans used to be packed tighter than aspargus tips, when I bumped into Bascom Timmons,

The Quiz Master

Do Am the WY Soa Ships pay toll go tirangh American vessels must pay toll for passage through the Panama Canal, just the same as the Vessels of any other nation.

* 9 9

Bor at Postmaster general other than Jesse M. Naldson had previously been employed in the Postal service? The ‘only other member of the postal service to hecome Postmaster general was Benjamin FrankPhy Who had previously served as postmaster of

+ tified Democrat from the floor (I know he was a

. low badge on his chest and word that he was no

By Frederick C. Othman

the perennial vice presidential candidate on the Democratic ticket. These many years Washington Newspaperman Timmons has had fun making an all-out and outlandish campaign for the number two spot. He always got.half a vote, too, from the District of Columbia delegation. This time, Candidate Timmons was glum, he said he didn’t dare campaign for Vice President. “Fact is,” said he, “I'm doing everything I can to create ill-will. Otherwise I might get that job.” 7

Southerners Were Sore

I STROLLED over then to a widely advertised caucus of Southerners; they were sore at President Truman for one thing and another, but there seemed to be more newspapermen under the crystal chandeliers than Democrats. The photographers.climbed up on the speakers’ table and kicked over a pitcher of iced water. Eventually Gov. Ben Laney of Arkansas got the speechifying started. “I want to ask a, question,” cried an uniden-

Southerner because he had a Southern accent). “Mr. Chairman, if President Truman is nominated at this convention, do I have to vote for him this fall?” : The chairman said that was a problem facing everybody in the room. And in strolled Jimmy Roosevelt, with a yel-

Southerner in the political sense; just a Southern Californian. I mean he wasn't talking. The Southerners didn’t seem to be making much headway. .

??? Test Your Skill 27?

Has a President or a Vice President of the United States ever resigned? No President of the United States thus far has ever resigned. Only one Vice President has resigned—John C. Calhoun. : * © o How many passengers can the Queen Elizaheth carry?

As a luxury passenger liner the Queen Elizabeth can accommodate 2260 passengers and 1290 crew. During the war, as a troop transport, she

In Design of New Filler

New Jersey Engineer

To Reduce Costs of Production

By DOUGLAS LARSEN,

WASHINGTON, July 12—Two new developments in the plastic industry are expected ‘to flood the country with scores of cheap| plastic products ranging from bureau drawers to caskets. Up until now the “plastic age” which was predicted for the post-| war period has been delayed by the high cost of raw plastic materials and the high cost of the manufacturing processes. Only a rela-

tively few small items made out of plastic have been able to compete in price with wood, metal and glass products. It is hoped that this price bottleneck will now be broken and larger plastic products can be manufactured profitably. ' Both of the developments are the work of a consulting engineer from Ridgewood, N. J., W. Burdette Wilkins. He revealed them at a recent meeting here of the Society of the Plastics Industry.

Withstands Heat

The first development is a new kind of cardboard material which won't burn or explode at high temperature. It is used as a sort of filler between sheets of plastic.

The filler has to be molded into shape and combined with the) plastic under high temperature. | Previously the paper composi: tion materials which have had to| be used as fillers between the plastic sheets have been very expensive. And they have been hard to work with because of their inflammable and explosive characteristics. Wilkins’ new filler, however, is only about one-quarter of the cost of the materials previously used and will not burn at the temperatures at which it is molded with the plastic. It is just as strong as the other fillers, too. He estimates that the reduced cost of the material and of the manufacturing process resultihg from his development will cut the price of the products made out of it about 50 per cent.

Plan Mass Production

Tentative plans have been made already to go into mass production of trays, suitcases and bureau drawers with the new plastic process. Thousands of other items such as bridge table tops are also easily adaptable to it, Wilkins says. The second development is expected to cut the cost of manufacturing large plastic products suchz-as rowboats and caskets and improve their quality. It is a copper-plated aluminum mold.

often carried 15,000 GIs on a single crossing.

The ‘cost of all-steel molds has

* 4

Reveals Material -

NEA Staff Correspondent

been found to be prohibitive for the manufacture of most large products which could be made out of plastic. Aluminum molds are cheaper and can do the job except that they don’t furnish a smooth finish. Gives High Finish Wilkins discovered that plating an aluminum mold with copper gave the product a smooth, glossy finish which didn’t require additional, expensive polishing. This new type of mold has been tested successfully in a large casket factory. It can be used in the making of any sized plastic prod-

uct. Wilkins says that both of his| developments are difficult to pat-| ent and he believes that they will]

quickly be used widely by thel .. and woman attending will|are taken out when a child wants

whole plastic industry.

| |

Assigned to Guam Fighter Wing Second Lt. Gilbert R. H. Browning has been assigned to the 46th

son of Mrs. Charity H. Huggins Lt. Browning was graduated from Bhortridge High School in 1842 and began his cadet training in March, 1943. Discharged in

(November, 1945, he was recalled|

to active duty in April, 1948,

Lions Club to Fete Four Charter Members

Four of the original 71 members of the Lions Club who made up the local club charter in 1921 will be honored at the club’s charter in 1921 will be honored at the club's charter day celebration at 12:10 p. m. Wednesday in the Claypool Hotel. The 27-year members are Charles 8. Merrick, Walter D. Niman, Albert Stump and George B. Wiegand.

Reunion Set July 25

The 13th annual reunion of Jackson Park Old Settlers will be held in Brookside Park July 25 north of the Communit® Center Bldg. The event will open with a basket lunch at noon. The oldest

receive gifts.

Rn"

PLASTIC AFLOAT—First one-piece, all-plastic boat, effec-

tively decorated with two-piece year ago. New aluminum mold

bathing suits, made its debut a development now promises low-

cost, mass production of such big plastic items.

+

1948 Model Dolls Burp, Cry, Take Bubble Baths

fighter wing in Guam. He is the |

Toy Guidance Council Showing Includes

line of toys today, came up with

perfume, soap, etc. The council also showed off two dolls which are expected to be the big things in 1948—one which whimpers when you strike it and one which burps after being fed. Baby Coo, an all-plastic doll ($6.98), coos when you caress it, sighs when you lay it down and cries when you spank it. The Burping Baby at $13.95, which includes a complete layette, drinks milk from a nippled bottle and when turned across the shoulder and spanked lives up to its name. Little girls are expected io love that. And That's Not Al} For animal lovers there is Puppsies ($5.95), a fuzzy little ‘mother dog and three puppies which normally carried in the

mother’s zippered stomach and

{to play with them. There's also] |Milky Moo, a synthetic cow which

moos when lifted and can. be {milked when it's filled with aid of}

an eye dropper. : Plastic has taken over the toys --representing the cutput of several dozens of manufacturers— and there is everything from the plastic dolls which feel like flesh to a battery-operated electric

3 which reverses, and a Playskook.

The last is a balance which balances when plastic numbers on each side add up to the same total

Mighty Mouse ($5.00), complete with yellow body, green pants, a blue and red cape, a big chest and a black hat.

. Spells Its Name

Juggle-head ($1.98), a mask onto which an enterprising junior

things as eyes, ears, noses, whiskers. Lock-It-Blox ($1): Plastic

can stick with magnets such

Dogs That Zip, Cows That Give Milk

By WALTER LOGAN, United Press Staff Correspondent

NEW YORK, July 12—Dolls this year can take bubble {baths. The Toy Guidance Council, Inc., which is showing off its 1948

the Bubbly Bath ($2.98)—a rec-

tangular inflated doll bath tub which floats in a child's bathtub while the child is bathing. It's complete with bubble producing fluid,

front of it a loudspeaker ane nounces: “Through train for Chi» cago, elphia and all points west. All' aboard.” The train then whistles and chugs off along the track. There's also a mysterious toy named the Wise Old Ow! which when asked a question points to the right answer.

Filipino Fighters To Get Land

Times Foreign Service MANILA, P. 1, July 12—War veterans, recognized guerrillas and deserving members of unrecognized guerrilla organizations in these islands stand a good chance of soon being able to purchase government-owned land. According to the provisions of a bill just signed by President Elpidio Quirino, lands within military reservations, no longer needed for military purposes, are to he subdivided. All lands so subdivided, except those required for public service, will be accessible for purchase, Bona fide occupants of these subdivided properties will have first chance and veterans second. Copyright, 1948, by The Indianapolis Times and The C

$2 for your ideas we print. Write Jerry » Langell ¢/o The Indianapolis Times

blocks with letters on them which

spelled out.

(Speed, load logs automatically, {water automatically, load and un load metal scrap with an electro-| magnet; and now there's a talking station—when a train.stops in

when fitted together properly be-| come an animal with his name)

Electric trains: They whistle, ichug, backup, go forward at any,

hicago Daily News, Inc. —

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