Newspaper Page Text
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Washington, D. C.
TERRITORIAL BASES
The island bases of the United
States are now considered our best
safeguard against invasion. But
army and navy brasshats get a
scorching rebuke in a report pre
pared by the house appropriations
subcommittee that inspected terri
torial bases.
Written by Rep. James G. Scrug
ham of Nevada, chairman of the
group, the report recommends the
immediate creation of an “inde
pendent air force.” This would be
intended to correct two chief
abuses:
(1) The location of army and navy
bases almost side by side in flat,
unprotected country, thus “inviting
destruction by enemy bombs.” (2)
Failure to build hangars, repair
shops and other facilities under
ground.
Regarding the first criticism the
Scrugham report states: “This
policy of concentrating highly essen
tial military or industrial struc
tures in very limited areas cannot
be too strongly condemned, and
may constitute an error of gravest j
consequences. This is as true in our
territorial as well as our continental 1
defenses.
“The lesson of the destruction of I
the Polish air force by the Germans i
at the beginning of the war seems !
to have gone entirely unheeded (by |
the aeronautic bureau chiefs re- |
sponsible). In a flat country, pro
tected air facilities may be imprac
tical, but where there are adjacent
hills, it seems inexcusable to delib
erately build . . . bases invitingly
located for bombing attacks, and so
close together that an enemy plane
can hit one if it misses the other.
“Everywhere the story is the
same, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico,
from Alaska to the Virgin Islands, j
Jamaica and Trinidad. Also, no j
adequate plans have been formulat
ed for water reserves, except to con- [
tract for drilling a few wells, with j
gave uncertainties as to quality
and quantity."
Scrugham’s conclusions are that
a “tragedy of the first magnitude”
may develop unless immediate
steps are taken to rectify conditions
at Hie territorial bases. His solu
tion is the centralization of all mili
tary air forces under a single head
with cabinet rank.
* * *
ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR AIK
One of the significant differences [
between the war and navy depart- I
ments is the hostility of navy brass- j
hats to civilian scrutiny and control !
of their operations. 9
Deciding that the vastly expanded ;
army air corps needed a central di- j
recting head, Stimson and Patter- i
son selected Robert Lovett, New
York banker and World war ace,
for the job and had the President
appoint him. There was no inter
ference from the generals, and air
corps chiefs are working harmoni
ously and effectively with their new
civilian boss.
Navy brasshats, on the other
hand, are fighting tooth and nail to
block a similar civilian intrusion
into their gold-braided realm.
Through high-powered lobbying op
erations in the house, the admirals
wormed into the $2,500,000,000 navy
appropriation bill a provision that
would make it impossible to name
an assistant secretary for air.
The prohibitive clause is a very
slick piece of axing. On its face
it has no connection with the pro
posed civilian appointee. It merely
bars the expenditure of navy funds
“for any additional positions . .
at a rate of compensation in excess
of $5,000 a year.” The pay for an
assistant secretary is $B,OOO a year.
* * *
TOUGH DRAFT BOARDS
The problem of industrial man
power has become so acute that de
fense chiefs have complained to se
lective service officials that some
local boards are “too tough” about
granting deferment to skilled work
men.
Ohio draft boards, for example,
are ordering the induction of crafts
men badly needed for the crucial
machine tool program. Similar
complaints have been made against
Michigan draft authorities for tak
ing specially skilled men needed by
the Packard plant, now producing
Rolls-Royce airplane engines for
the British.
From Virginia have come reports
that the draft is hampering the vast
naval and shipbuilding program at
New-port News.
The problem of labor supply is
also hitting agriculture. Agricul
tural officials fear that so much
labor is being drained off farms that
some of them want to bar any more
defense plants in midwestern dairy
and pork sections.
* * *
MERRY-GO-ROUND
Tall, fast-moving Rep. Lyndon
Johnson is going to let no grass
grow under his feet in his campaign
for the seat of the late Sen. Morris
Sheppard of Texas. The young New
Dealer, who has the public blessing
of the President, plans 208 speeches,
an average of three a day.
George Brooks, executive assist
ant in the OPM labor division, is
able to keep two secretaries busy
taking dictation and at the same
time carry on a telephone conver
sation
A LL quiz clubs, interested in
baseball, are hereby called to
order. We are able to offer them
a few interesting and important
queries that even more ball players
can’t answer. They came to us
from the active brain of Ford Frick,
president of the National league.
Here they are:
1. How long is the playing career
of the average big
league ball player?
wF 2. What is the
■ average amount of
H •-«■» money big league
> j ball players make
a in their playing
3. What is the
A average length of
F time it takes to tle
'Jar W velop a big leaguer,
m. <1 /klsH starting from his
Orantland Rice flrst t,a y in the
minors?
It has remained for Ford Frick, one
of the best officials baseball ever
knew, to supply the correct answers.
It was no easy job since President
Frick had to look back through the
lifetime careers of a long, long list.
I happened to be with Bill Dickey,
Joe Gordon and Red Rolfe when
j Ford put on his quiz—and none of
us came within brassie distance of
; hitting the target.
Average Ploying Lifetime
“There have been leaguers who
knew only one year of service,”
Frick said. “There have been oth
ers, such as Ty Cobb, Pop Anson
and Jack Quinn, who hung on for
nearly 25 years. But in adding up
all the figures I discovered the
average big league player’s career !
is just 8(4 years,
“Those who passed the 20-year
mark include Cobb, Anson, Wagner,
Ruth, Lajoie, Quinn, Speaker, Cy
[ Young, and a few more. But the av
erage span is 8(4 seasons.”
This was a trifle astonishing to
| Messrs. Dickey, Gordon and Rolfe,
| who had guessed from four to six
years.
Question No. 2 is—" How much do
ball players collect, on an average,
through their playing careers?”
Mr. Frick had the answer to this.
“The amount,” he said, “is $120,-
000. This would mean around
$14,000 a year. Salaries have
ranged from $3,000 to Babe Ruth’s
$BO,OO0 —and it was Babe Ruth who
| lifted the average far above old
levels.
“This mark is well above what it
( was 10 years ago. It is far above
j what it was 20 years ago.”
Holdouts of 1910
I recall over B 0 years ago when
Larry Lajoie and Ed Delehanty, two
| of the greatest of all lime, were
| offered contracts for $2,500 and held
out for $3,000. And they were both
around the .400 class.
The largest salary Christy Math
ewson ever drew was $12,500 —when
he was winning from 33 to 35 games
a year.
The highest paid men today in
clude Hank Greenberg, Bob Feller,
Buck Newsom and Joe DiMaggio.
I Their average is above $30,000.
Until Ford Frick dug up the gen
eral average, I doubt that anyone
J ever guessed that an B’4-year ball
player would collect $120,000 for his
] work.
The highest payrolls today belong
to the Yankees, Tigers and Red Sox.
All three have such headliners as
Greenberg, DiMaggio, Newsom,
Dickey, Gehringer, Foxx, Grove,
Williams, Ruffing and Gordon, who
\ are all in the higher brackets.
“One queer feature,” Frick, said
“is that most of the higher salaries
come in a ball player’s tenth or
I eleventh season, when he has be
j come a star.”
There is a report out that the only
i ball player who was ever sent a
blank contract and
told to write In his
own figures was
Bob Grove of the B
Red Sox. Where
j upon Grove sent the
unsigned contract It s .*i|jri
back to Tom Yaw- i
key with the re
quest that Yawkey ||| v *
"Carl Hubbell
was sent the same
type of contract,”
someone said, “and Lefty Grove
I Carl wrote in less than the club ex
| pected to pay.”
Third question—“ How long does
it take to turn a minor leaguer into a
1 major leaguer?” Again speaking
in terms of the average.
“After a thorough check, I find it
takes just 3(4 years for all except
the pitchers. It takes the pitchers
4(4 years to be ready for big league
bats,” President Ford Frick said.
“I am taking the time from the
first minor league start until the
player is ready for a big league job.
Many, of course, have come along
in a year or two. A few have broken
in directly from college play or
sandlot play. Others have taken six
or seven years—or even longer—be
fore they arrived with the right
equipment.
“But a thorough search and study
of the records shows that a minor
leaguer usually needs 3(4 years’
training before he can hold down a
major league job—and keep it for i
a while.” he added
HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA
N - i... i
Kathleen Norris Says:
Upon Making the Best of It
(Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.)
Probably the most prevalent burden upon the lives of American women is money
shortage. It doesn’t always mean that there isn't enough money. But it means bad
budgeting, extravagance, waste, and consequent worry.
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
ALONG, long time ago when
I was quite a small girl I
was taken to call upon a
young man named Curtis. He
was stone blind; had been born
blind. He did a great many
things, played the piano, read
Braille, wrote poetry, modelled
in clay and had for his pets two
kittens and about fifty spiders.
I suppose it was this last in
credible detail that fixed him
and his philosophy so firmly in
a seven-year-old’s memory. I
was left in his care while the
grown-ups went off on some er
rand, and sat petrified, a kitten
in my lap, my eyes following
Curtis with fascinated horror as
he took down one small card
board box after another and
showed me its hairy swarming
occupant.
Child-like, I asked him frankly if
it wasn’t very trying to be without
sight, and his answer comes back
to me across more than half a cen
tury.
“Not at all,” he said. “I live with
my blindness, not against it.'*
A Commonsense Creed.
A thousand times since, when cir
cumstances have come into my own
life that have made it completely
unendurable for a time, I have re
membered Curtis. His simple little
creed has been passed on to hun
dreds of other lives. It is plain
commonsense not to fight your trou
ble; grief, handicap, loss: not to
pretend it isn’t there or fling your
self screaming on the floor sobbing
that you can’t bear it. It is wis
dom to rise to the height w’hen you
can live with it, and see how much
easier that makes it to face.
One of the greatest American
women who ever lived started a na
tion-wide peace movement 20 years
ago. Thousands of us who were
younger women saw through her
eyes a vision of world peace; we
knew it might be made real; we
knew that all the nations could live
in peace with their neighbors as
America has for so many years.
For 20 years some of us have been
going about talking peace. Begging
that the unjust decisions and parti
tions that followed the last war
might be gradually mitigated by the
European powers, that they might
come to see that friendliness is the
invincible weapon and that only
good, and not more bad, can over
come evil in the end.
But we were not strong enough;
perhaps we were not wise enough;
we women do not even now, after 20
years as citizens, know our own
power. And so war has come again,
and America must lay down her own
true weapons of reason and neigh
borliness and understanding, and en
ter into the hideous competition of
guns and bombs. War silences
women.
Must Begin Work Anew.
We will outlive this war, and when
peace comes again we will begin
our work again. And after many
years and many wars there will be
peace. Meanwhile we have to live
with war again, and it is for every
one of us to live without fear and
without hate, to pray that the days
of battle and sacrifice may be brief,
and to work toward the coming of a
better day. To see, when the war is
over, that no nation is cruelly treat
ed, no terms are unfair, that arm
istice promises are kept. For 20 long
COMMONSENSE
Do you know where your place is in
mi's topsy-turvy set-up? Do you fret
about trivial matters? Is poor money
management one of your problems?
These and other mind-over-rnatter
topics are discussed sanely and wisely
this week by Kathleen /V orris. Read
“how to make the best of it."
years this present war has been
slowly forming itself; many things,
simple and easy in themselves,
might have been done to prevent it.
Not one, but a hundred injustices
and cruelties and evasion of respon
sibility on the part of us all, who
were the “winners” in 1918, helped
to bring about the condition in which
a great nation went homicidally in
sane.
Consider Happiness So Much
‘Velvet.’
It will help us all if you learn to
live with your daily troubles, what
ever they are. It is only a waste of
time to spend your days planning
exactly how free and happy you
would be if just one obstacle—your
mother-in-law, or the mortgage, or
the job, or perhaps even your hus
band himself—were by some mira
cle removed from the picture. Worse
than wasting time, to be a fretter,
to refuse to face the fact that gen
erations of imperfect forefathers
have made us all poor weak human
failures, is to hurt yourself. We
ought to regard the happiness and
serenity we get out of this life as
so much “velvet,” and accept the
difficulties as the normal condition.
Probably the most prevalent bur
den upon the lives of American wom
en is money shortage. It doesn’t
always mean that there isn’t enough
money; for our average family
spends enough upon luxuries, car,
movies, cosmetics, gum, Christmas
wrappings, radio parts and ciga
rettes to support three European
families in comfort. But it means
bad budgeting, extravagance, waste
and consequent worry.
This would be a good time to get
rid of that bugbear once and for all.
Get Rid of Money Worries.
“Get rid of it!” indignantly echoes
some harrassed housekeeper, glanc
ing toward the desk where bills for
sport shoes, private schools, beauty
parlor, green glass candlesticks,
wedding presents, flowers sent to
hospitalized friends, taxi fares,
dancing lessons, bridge lessons,
cleaner, dressmaker, milliner, club
dues and a hundred other nagging
obligations are piling up day after
day.
Yes, get rid of it all, and live in
the blessed freedom of peace of
mind. Live under your income in
stead of above it. WeTl all have to
learn some lessons in simple living
in the next few years; why not be
among the smart women who are
going to lead the fashion?
For that misery of feeling poor
even while spending too much mon
ey is one of the troubles with which
we don’t have to live. Nobody has
to live with it. That particular situ
ation is always curable. And only
the woman who cured herself of the
display and extravagance, the waste
and irresponsibility of debt, who has
come down to bed rock and gotten
clear of bills, knows the real flavor
of life.
Live WITH a Changed America.
So gear spirit and mind to live in
the changed conditions of a soberer
and stronger America. Make these
days days of growth. Never doubt
that we shall emerge from them
thinking and acting on a wider
scale; more conscious of our re
sponsibilities to each other and to
all the peoples of the world.
AK WI'W'X ire,,, fuirt » '•*
Eleanor Roosevelt
Across the Nation
The sun shone when we reached
Peoria, 111.,'from Washington en
route to Chicago and then, after a
press conference, I went out to see
one of the housing projects built
under the U. S. housing authority.
Everyone with whom I talked, had
the highest praise for Mr. Nathan
Straus and, the work which has been
accomplished under his leadership.
The particular project which 1 saw
was practically completed, except
for the landscaping.
There are two types of buildings,
three story apartment houses and
two story small houses. The rents
are remarkably reasonable, far be
low the average for substandard
housing in Peoria. I am sure all
the officials are very pleased with
what has been accomplished.
Later, I met the staff of the WPA
for the district. I was very much
interested to hear an account of
the Workers Service project, which
has just been operating during the
past two months. They have set
up centers of information for the
workers, and they seem to have
been able to make these centers
very useful in the short time they
have been open.
A number of the British Relief
people, among them two small
girls dressed in Scotch kilts, came
at five o’clock to shake hands with
me. I was glad to see Mrs. John
son, who remembered having enter
tained the President and me in the
1920 campaign.
After the lecture in the evening,
I attended a small reception. We
boarded the train a little before
midnight, arriving in Chicago early
in the morning.
At noon, we started across the
continent, bound for Los Angeles.
♦ ♦ ♦
‘WIDE OPEN SPACES’
We awoke the next morning to
find ourselves some 7,000 feet up in
the mountains, where the state of
Colorado and the state of New Mex
ico join. A driving rainstorm, at
times turning into snow, was with
us all day and in places really deep
snows covered the ground. We saw
miles of prairie powdered with snow
and have passed many, many cattle
and sheep; none of them looking
too happy at this last burst of
winter.
The houses are so far apart in
this part of our country, one cannot
help but think that it requires a
different quality to live and to be
happy where so much of the time
must be spent alone. Even the im
mediate family of a woman must
leave her many lonely hours, for
they go to work or to school. The
man who earns a living out here
must spend much time alone. Even
the youngsters must have occasions
when they know what it is like to
see no other human being anywhere
in sight.
It must be hard sometimes, and
yet I think it must give one a sense
of self-reliance. Perhaps the near
ness to the soil and the great out
doors puts iron into their souls.
RECENT READING
I have read the American Red
Cross report on war relief, and I
think we can be proud of the record
that the help made available by and
through the Red Cross up to March
1 totaled in value $22,981,942. I was
glad to note that relief to Finland
had increased last month, but I was
extremely sorry to note in the pa
pers that a shipload of Red Cross
supplies bound for Greece had come
to grief on its voyage. Somehow,
one feels that no Red Cross supplies
should be war casualties.
There is a new quarterly maga
zine called “The Land,” published
by “Friends of the Land,” which
should be on everybody’s table. It
is a magazine which hopes to make
us all conservation conscious, be
cause people go down and come up
with their land, and ours needs to
be conserved.
Finally, I read a pamphlet called
“Britain Under Fire.” It is a col
lection of articles written by John
Cowles, president of the Minneapo
lis Star Journal. I have read some
before but gathered together in this
way, they make impressive read
ing. One of them in particular in
terested me. It is called “What Will
The Peace Terms Be?” I think
these two paragraphs are worth
much thought on our part:
“English trades unions and labor
party leaders, who are co-operating
completely with the Churchill gov
ernment, have as one of their basic
aims the re-establishment of strong,
free trades unions in Germany as
a bulwark against future mili
tarism.
“To attain this end, they say |
Britain must help build a sound and
thriving national economy in post
war Germany.”
♦ • *
‘TRUE COMICS’
There is a comic magazine, which
everyone of us with youngsters who
like to read the comics, should hail
with joy. It is “True Comics,” pub
lished by the Parents Institute. Its
, quality is assured by the fact that
[ Mr. George J. Hecht is the presi
dent and publisher, while the editor
is Mr. David Marke. Junior advi
sory editors Janet Cantor, Gloria
Jean, Mickey Rooney, Shirley Tem
ple and Virginia Weidler ought to be
able to help make this a really good
comic magazine.
n
PARMER BROWN’S little be
patched overalls, strdw hat »,
polka-dot neckerchief, poses f or
most practical cutout. He glad
holds a hose and sprinkles lawn
garden the whole day through
♦ * *
In 16-lnch size, the outlines for this r™
all boy are on Z 9278, 15 cents. Trace u
on plywood or thin lumber, cut out w
jig. coping or keyhole saw and pamf
suggested on the pattern, or as you W i,
General cutout directions accompany t
order. Send your order to; * 1
AUNT MARTHA ]
Box 166-W Kansas City, Mo,
Enclose 15 cents for each pattern
desired. Pattern No
Name
Address
Captured Officers
Under the terms of the Gencv
convention of 1929, officers cat
tured in war have their salarie
paid by the power detaining ther
as prisoners. Each officer receive
the pay made to officers of hi
rank in the country in which h
is held captive, but it is provide
that such pay shall not be greate
than he received for that rank i
his own country.
In other words, he cannot get ai
increase in pay by virtue of bcin|
a prisoner of war.
j-Nf rvous Restiess-i
f Cran ky? Restless?
iisPiaAl " Can’t sleep? Tire
WBBfiwl easily? Because of
distress of monthly
functional disturbances? Then try
Lydia E. Plnkliam’s Vegetable Com
pound.
Plnkham’s Compound Is famous
for relieving pain of Irregular periods
and cranky nervousness due to such
disturbances. One of the most c[mo
tive medicines you can buy today
for this purpose made especially
Jor women. WORTH TRYING 1
Right of Government
The divine right of kings may
have been a plea for feeble ty
rants, but the divine right of gov
ernment is the keystone of hu
man progress, and without it gov
ernments sink into police, and a
nation is degraded into a mob,-
Benjamin Disraeli.
DON'T BE BOSSED
BY YOUR LAXATIVE-RELIEVE
CONSTIPATION THIS MODERN WAY
• When you feel gassy, headachy, logy
due to clogged-up bowels, do as avlliors
do—take Feen-A-Mint at bedtime. Next
morning —thorough, comfortable relief,
helping you start the day full of your
normal energy and pep, feeling like *
million! Feen-A-Mint doesn’t disturb
your night’s rest or interfere with work the
next day. IVy Feen-A-Mint, the chewing
gum laxative, yourself. It tastes good, H >
handy and economical... a family suppo
FEEN-fl-MINT To*
Our Failings
No one is satisfied with his for
tune, nor dissatisfied with his in
tellect.—Deshoulieres.
mMi
BUREAU OF
STANDARDS
• A BUSINESS
organization which wants
to get the most for the
money sets up standards
by which to judge what
is offered to it, just as in
Washington the govern
ment maintains a Bureau
of Standards.
•You can have your own
Bureau of Standards, too.
Just consult the advertis
ing columns of your news
paper. They safeguard
your purchasing P° wer
