The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-23
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

EDITORS NoTE-This rowing reporter
for The Times goes where he pleases,
when he pleaSes. in search of odd stories
about this and that.
nALLAS, May 23.-Every morn
~ ing at s o'clock sharp. 20 men
sit down in chairs around the walls
OF an Office here in Dallas.
The boss passes around cigars. If
everybody is on time, the boss pays
for the cigars. If somebody is late,
that somebody has to pay for them.
These men have been gathering
every morning for months. They
are the handspring of the Texas
Centennial Exposition. They are the
department heads. They sit down
daily and talk over their troubles,
and their plans.
Months ago these men and their
STATS started building this mighty
Centennial Exposition. There were,
roughly, little more than nine mil
lion things to be done.
Weeks and months went by, and
the Centennial progressed. But it's
hard to work against deadline, un-
til the line gets close enough for
you to see it. A few weeks ago the
time came when you could look
ahead on the calendar and actually
see June 6.
THAT was the old persuader. The
Il throttle went to the floor.
Things shot forward. The Centennial
grounds became a chaos of activity.
Today these men are working up to
terrific climax. The opening is
just few days away.
There is a tenseness in the air.
Ten thousand people are Slashing
away, day and night, on the final
stretch. Buildings take shape over
night. People rush along Railways
in the Administration Building,
humping into each other. Everything
is rush. rush, rush.
So they're working to climax,
but they'll make it. These 20 men.
and the 10000 under them, have
things in hand. When the gates
open June 6 on this mammoth spec
tacle of frontier history, nearly
everything will be ready.
Two months ago I looked in on
the Centennial, on my way to MeXi-
co. There we're big raw holes in
the ground, and scaffolding here and
there. But it didn't look much like
an exposition.
TINE change in two months is
l. almost inconceivable. I have
just had lunch in huge, complete
ly furnished restaurant. Two months
ago I saw the steam shovel take out
the first hunk of dirt for the base
ment. Everything has gone up like
that.
Twenty-Five thousand job-hunters
have been turned down. The roads
into Dallas are lined thick with
hitch-hikers (mostly nice looking
young men, too hunting jobs with
the Centennial. Ten thousand build
ers are at work today. After the
Centennial is open and settled then
it will take 5000 people to run it.
A million advance tickets have
been sold. They expect to sell two
million before opening day. An at
tendance of 100000 during the
summer is counted on.
Dallas has publicized it's exposf-
ton like nobody'S business. Every
body in America must know about
the Centennial by now except my
Uncle Jake, who lives in a cave up
in the Ozarks. It's costing $500 a
month just to clip Centennial stuff
in the nations newspapers.
The Texas Centennial is for three
purposes: To commemorate the
one hundredth anniversary of Texan
independence from Mexico; to show
to the nation the progress Texas
has made in 100 years aild to bring
100000 visitors in here and make
a lot of money for Dallas.
GO far as 1 can see at this writ
~ ing, all three points Will be
realized.
Dallas has been accused of max
ing too little of historical celebra-
ton out of this thing and too much
OF big all-round, bring EN- in,
get-the-dough exposition.
But it seems to me there will be
plenty of history. The historical
theme runs through everything
cept the Midway-and how can you
run historical theme through a
fan dancer?
They say more than so per cent of
the exposition will have historical
background. All the big exhibitors.
such as Ford, General Motors. Gulf.
Humble Oil and so on, will have his
torical displays.
Dallas claims many things for its
coming Centennial. But there is
one claim which particularly i'm
presses me:
That the visitor will see more for
his so cents without running into
second pay gate), than anybody
ever saw.