Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, November 28, 1941, page 6 (of 8)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
CORAL GABLES RIVIERA
AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Published every Friday by the Miami Riviera Publishing Co., 306 Coral Way, Coral Gables, Fla. Established January, 1926 Combined with the Dade County and Coconut Grove Times, 1929. ALBERT E. HARUM President and Publisher JAMES B. MOORE Managing Editor Mailing Address, P. O. Box 704 Telephone 4-1634 Member, Florida Press Association National Editorial Association Represented in the National Advertising Field by the American Press Association, New York City SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Year by Carrier, Coral Gables and Six Months | $1.25 One Year | $2.00 Entered as second class matter May 21, 1926, at the Postoffice at Miami, Florida, under Act of March 3, 1879.
Send Sunshine North
The orange and the grapefruit are rapidly taking their place in the sun. The citrus fruit, aside from its health-giving qualities, is the emblem of Florida, the symbol of sunshine. Figures which have been compiled in the Riviera office indicate that we in Coral Gables, both permanent residents and visitors, are more than glad to share our sunshine with relatives and friends in colder climates. According to shipping statistics from four of the larger stores in the Gables nearly 10,000 crates of sunshine went North last winter. With our proximity to the Redlands citrus growing district we should aim to double this record this year. Besides carrying its abundant quota of vitimins each orange and grapefruit which leaves Coral Gables bound for the northern homes carry is a personal essay carrying the story of the beauty and glory of Florida.
An Equitable Solution
The prospect of paying more for any commodity or service is never a pleasant one, especially in these times when the price of everything seems to be shooting skyward with the speed of a Fourth of July sky rocket. It was hardly to be expected, therefore, that the announcement of a raise in municipal bus rates would be greeted with any huzzahs and wild bursts of enthusiasm. The reaction to City Manager Curry's announcement however, seems to indicate that the average citizen understands the city position and is accepting the rate hike without uncalled for "growling". It is important to those who pay taxes that the transportation system operate without a loss. Every penny in the "red" means more taxes for Gableites to pay. Therefore, with rising costs of gasoline, oil repairs, parts replacement and wages, the increased price of bus tickets becomes a necessity. By raising fares instead of taxes, the city places the extra cost of the transportation system on the persons who benefit from the busses—the passengers. It is the only equitable way of solving a difficult problem.
Mayor Says a Mouthful
Mayor Joe Whitley, referring to the Merchant's Bureau, made a remark the other day that bears repeating. Said Mr. Whitley, "If the merchants in this town would turn out for every meeting like they did the last one, they could accomplish anything that they set out to do." We think the mayor has something there. At the last gathering almost every type of business in the community was represented. The civic room of the Country Club was packed and the enthusiasm was at a high point. Many merchants who attended had never been to a Bureau meeting before, and despite the fact that they were away from their places of business for an hour, we believe that each one got something out of the meeting that was worth far more than the time spent, even getting to know some of his fellow businessmen and women a little better. The Bureau meets again today at 12:15 at the Country Club. It is hoped that the attendance will be even greater than last week. You merchants who did not show up, really missed something at the last meeting. Make up for it today!
Modern Fable
Mr. John Q. Wiseacre settled back in his lounge chair, lit a big, black cigar and laughed at his wife, who was busily pouring over a list of names. "Quit fussing over that Christmas list," he roared. "You women are worse than a flock of hens. Christmas shopping is a cinch. Just give me the list and I'll spend a couple of hours on Christmas Eve and get everybody the right present with no trouble at all." "But John," replied his faithful frau, "I read in The Riviera where the early shopper is going to get the best buys this year; that many things are going off the market everyday and cannot be replaced during this war crisis." "Fooey," said Wiseacre, blowing thick smoke rings. "It's a lot of propaganda to get merchants early business. There ain't a word of truth about it. Just leave it to me and quit worrying." Mrs. Wiseacre sighed, shook her head doubtfully and then acceded to the wishes of her lord and master. (Time passeth and comes the dawn of Christmas day, 1941) Sylvester Doe, neighbor of the Wiseacres, yawned, opened the front door for the morning paper and then yelled at his wife: "Listen to this dear, in the paper, 'John Q. Wiseacre was found dead in the business district yesterday afternoon. He was clutching an unchecked Christmas list in his hand. Doctors pronounced his death due to Exasperation."
FOUR BITS by Jim Moore
JIM MOORE We like to think we're pretty tough when it comes to being immune to tear-jerker movies, sob sister stuff and the like, but we saw a cartoon the other day that we frankly admit caused a lump about the size of an apple to crop up in our throat. The drawing depicted a shabbily dressed mother and her little boy, staring at an obviously well-to-do youngster all dressed up in a cowboy suit and riding a shiny tri-cycle. The mother was saying to the wistfully staring lad, "Don't worry dear, some day daddy's going to invent something and make a million dollars, and then you'll have a cowboy suit, tri-cycle and a real live pony, too." Unfortunately, there are hundreds of such little boys, and while it would be wonderful if it would happen, we're very much afraid that all of their daddies won't invent the better mousetrap and come out with a million dollars profit. We Gables residents are pretty fortunate. This is one town in a million where there is no "other side of the tracks" and when Christmas comes, just a few weeks from now, practically every Gables youngster will find just what he asked for, piled up under the Christmas tree. However, we don't have to go far outside our city limits to find homes where parents are now looking forward to Christmas with a dull, leaden, dread in their hearts, wondering how they are going to explain to their young ones why Santa Claus passed them up again. Nobody wants that to happen, and particularly one group of men, who are now hard at work during spare moments to prevent any of these children from being disappointed. We are referring to Captain "Top" Hardin and his firemen who annually don the roles of Santa and his helpers and dedicate their off hours from now until Christmas Eve, endeavoring to answer the hundreds of eager letters, hopefully addressed to Santa Claus and delivered by wise postal authorities to the fire department. Already the garage behind the fire station has taken on the appearance of Santa's work shop as kindly souls, who don't have to be reminded, deposit piles of outgrown or old toys, discarded and forgotten by their own children. When they first arrive these toys present a sorry sight, and as we looked at them, we wondered how in heaven they could ever be made usable again. Tricycles show up with a missing wheel. Dolls with missing heads, arms and legs are heaped in a corner, looking for all the world like a scene of carnage. Bent toys, broken toys, paint-less toys—all find their way to the firemen's workshop. But the smoke eaters don't seem a bit discouraged. They grin, roll up their sleeves and go to work. When a toy is not salvageable, parts are carefully removed and placed in a pile. One heap contains doll's eyes, another wheels, still another arms and legs. Then these parts are used to repair less damaged toys. It seems almost like a miracle to see these toys when they come in and then to see them ready for presentation at the Annual Fireman's Party on Christmas Eve. Spick, span and painted and, dolls look for all the world like they have come straight from the store. To you who haven't yet given, we'd like to urge you that you look around the house today and gather up all the toys you can for the firemen. They need plenty of them, as anyone who has seen the jam of poor tots around the tree on Christmas Eve, will testify. Time is passing rapidly, so the sooner you get them in to the fire station, the easier you'll make the load on the firemen. Now we know that there are hundreds of homes in the Gables that are completely devoid of toys. Youngsters have grown up or there are none as yet. We fall into that latter category ourself. But all of us can help too. The next time you pass the dime store, stop for a moment and go in and look over the toy counter, you'll get a whale of a kick out of it. Wind up a toy tank and watch it run across the floor, spitting miniature fire; or bend back a doll and listen to it say "Mama". Spend as much time as you like, it'll take years off your age. Then, when you've tried everything, pick out something and take it over to the fire station. It doesn't have to be expensive. A ten cent or a quarter toy will look like a million dollars to some poor kid on Christmas Eve. And furthermore, you'll feel like a million. We know, we've tried it.
Let Us Give Thanks
FREEDOM TOLERANCE
Dollars and Sense
By ROMEYN W. SMITH Investment Consultant Mr. Smith Investors today are faced with the need of making a decision about their future investment policy. This decision may include the selection of a source for investment advice or management. The investing public should be on the lookout, constantly, for tips, rumors, publicity and propaganda which are handed out, usually gratis, under the cloak of "investment advice". Despite many expensive lessons, we never have been able to understand why the general public is so gullible to false or irrelevant information. Under the Securities and Exchange Act, tips, propaganda, etc., were supposed to have been outlawed. From a practical viewpoint, we fail to see how such things can be eliminated completely. Some years ago a Senate investigation uncovered the fact that certain contributors to financial journals were in the pay of those who wanted to unload weak securities in the public. In order to manage securities, the investor must understand and anticipate major trends of business and of security prices. This entails a pretty firm grasp of economics and constant study of such indexes as bank debits, Federal Reserve member bank loans, commercial failures, electric power production, interest rates, construction contracts (dwellings, commerical, utility and public works), machine tool orders and shipments, automobile production, money in circulation, freight car loadings, petroleum output, steel production, prices of farm products, employment and payrolls, inventories and dollar purchasing power. Ability to differentiate between the long trend, short swing and day-to-day market movements also is required. One must keep faithful and constant data regarding some 30 different industries. Next, one must evaluate the properties of the leading corporations, some 150 at least. One must study their capital structures, the effect of taxes, investigate their managements and determine the effect on corporation earning power of new securities sold to the public. One must carefully weigh the reasons for rises or declines in the prices of stocks and bonds of a hundred corporations and determine when to take a profit or a loss, when to buy and when to sell. One must keep their security portfolio properly diversified as to types, industries and corporations, and vary the proportions from time to time as factors affecting trends and industries develop. One must not become too enthusiastic, no matter how favorable one company or one group may look, nor must one succumb too easily to the wails of the pessimists. Usually top security prices are near when the optimists are rampant and the low prices passed when the greatest pessimism prevails. One must understand markets and marketability and have up-to-date information as to shares outstanding, shares in the hands of the public and relative activity of several hundred stock and bond issues. One must be immune to tips, to rumors, to publicity and propaganda. One must have facilities for fact-finding. One must keep close contact with Washington because of the importance of politics in our economic life and because of the need to interpret the foreign situation as accurately as possible. Lastly, with inflation threatened, one must understand the methods of preserving the purchasing power of the dollar and determine which method or methods will be most helpful under current domestic and world conditions. In short, every investor today finds himself or herself in the first year of a decade more fraught with possibilities of profit or loss to the investor than at any time since the American Revolution. Every investor is faced with this decision,— "Can he or she go it alone or is help needed in the management of their money and securities?"
Too Late to Classify
By RUSSELL KAY I don't go out of my way to use the words "Honorable", "Esquire", or even "Mister" for that matter. But I'm gonna go haywire and apply all of 'em to the guy who is scheduled to hold down the heavy speaking spot on the State Chamber of Commerce meeting in Panama City next week, on account of him bein' plenty important. I'm refering to the Honorable Mister Charles B. Henderson, Esquire, Chairman of the Board of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, who, they tell me, has lent over 14 billion dollars to American firms and busines men. Now that kind of money staggers my imagination. I might be able to tell you how much a quarter or a half is, but the only answer I could give to the question "How much is 14 billion dollars?" would be "It ain't HAY!" Anyhow it seems to me that a bird who can play around like that ought to be important enough to rate all the digiffied titles anybody could wish on him. "Moneybags" Henderson is going to speak next Monday at Panama City before delegates attending the 25th membership and business conference of the Florida State Chamber of Commerce and will probably have a lot to say about that 14 billion, so if I can rake together enough of the kind of money I've had experience with to buy gasoline I'm gonna try and get up there and hear what he has to say. Florida banks, insurance companies, railrods, drainage districts, municipalities, agricultural agencies, trust companies, waterworks, housing, docks and terminals and a score of other enterprises, since 1932 to date have borrowed upwards of 40 million from brother Henderson and I imagine Henderson will include in his remarks some pointed reference to Florida borrowings. I don't know what kind of a chap this Henderson is, but I got a hunch I'll find him as plain as an old shoe and a regular fellow. Most of the really important folks are like that. But if I should happen to meet him and get to thinkin' about 14 billion I'll probably stand there gawkin' at him like a cockeyed water-turkey. How Harold Colee was able to get such a big shot way down here in the heart of "The Nation's Number One Economic Problem" is more than I can figure out, for after all Harold is just an ordinary guy like you and me. But it seems that this business of bein' Executive Vice-President of a state chamber of commerce carries more weight than I realized. Anyhow, Harold has done a swell job and he deserves a lot of credit, and all indications point to the coming conference being the best in the history of the organization. I understand that just about everybody and his brother and sister plan to attend and since all hotel rooms in Panama City have been reserved for a month or more there'll probably be a lot of folks sleepin' in the park. But don't let that keep you away for they've got a darn good park at Panama City and if you have to you can stop off at Marianna or Talahassee and commute to the meetin'. Then my experience is that nobody wants to sleep at a convention anyhow, and the jooks stay open all night in that neck of the woods. In addition to Brother Henderson there will be plenty of other worthwhile features on the program during the 2-day session, with outstanding speakers on a variety of subjects from the FBI to Control of Hog Cholera. The theme of the conference. Harold tells me, is "Florida—A United State". It's a good theme and a good slogan. The State Chamber is playing an important part in bringing all sections and all interests under one banner for the welfare and advancement of the State as a whole. But gettin' back to Henderson. Colee probably has been sending him a mess of the fanciful statistics that this guy L. J. Penny releases from time to time, and it served to hypnotize the big RFCoin man, but won't he be in for an awful letdown when he learns that Florida is just a four billion dollar state, lock, stock and barrel?
IN OUR MAIL BAG
Wednesday Editor, The Riviera: Last evening the Business and Professional Women had a dinner meeting at the Country Club of Coral Gables, with the Defense Program as their theme. Mr. A. L. Reynolds was the speaker, and I was so impressed with his talk,—it was so instructive—that I am writing you hoping that this letter will be the cause of many groups in Coral Gables having the opportunity of hearing this same talk. So many if us do not know of the wonderful organization that has been set up in Dade County, and Mr. Reynolds is one that can tell about it. At various intervals we may have read of this or that project, but his talk just gave a wonderful outline of the organization as a whole. I hope if Mr. Reynolds is approached to give this talk several times that he may have the time to do so. No one should miss the opportunity of hearing him. Sincerely, Alvie S. Lindborg Secretary of Coral Gables Chamber of Commerce.
This and That BETWEEN YOU AND ME
SWAMP BUGGY—When E. H. Cardwell goes Everglades hunting he goes in style. "Cardy" has an interest in a "swamp buggy". The tires are 42 inches by 16 inches and it is powered by a Model T Ford motor. It also boasts a Jumbo rear end with 18 speeds forward. * * * NEW METHOD—Gwen Tuckerman at Daniels has discovered a new use for the mannikens in the store. When Gwen has an itchy place on her back, she marches over to one of the models, places the spot against one of the plaster finger tips and then by moving up and down, scratches to her heart's content. * * * INGENIOUS—The opening of the new Gables Theatre brought to light a story about the ingenuity of the men who installed the black lights, the invisible spots in the ceiling that cause the "magic" fluorescent carpet to glow. Because of the height of the ceiling, it was next to impossible to drop plumb lines to make certain the invisible rays would hit the carpet. Consequently, the aisles were marked off with chalk and one of the workmen took a 22 rifle, set it upright in the center of the aisle with the aid of two levels, and then shot a hole in the ceiling. Using this method, he proceeded up and down all the aisles, shooting merrily away, until all lights were spotted. In every instance, he came within a fraction of an inch of the proper position. * * * FORCED LANDING—If a certain group of cows in Montgomery, Ala. are not giving milk, the farmer can blame it on Dr. Cal Martin and Carl Dewey, who returned recently from a plane trip to Atlanta, Anderson, S. C., New Orleans and Ockmulgee, Okla. During the course of their trip in Cal's Tuscombe plane, they developed motor trouble and made a forced landing right in the middle of a cow pasture. * * * WHAT'S YOUR GUESS?—Dr. Jay Pearson was walking across campus the other day, his face wreathed in smiles. As he steped along, we over-heard three students in ardent debate. "He's smiling on account of being made Dean of Faculty," said one. "Naw," contradicted a classmate, "he's happy because he thinks we're going to lick Alabama." "You're both wrong," quipped the third, "it's because he's the papa of a bouncing new baby." * * * CONSOLATION—It's funny that when a fellow has a toothache he has heaped upon him all the pseudo-sympathy in the world. Leland Shepard was off to the dentist the other day to have an offending molar removed and returned to find that a "friend" had left the following consoling note on his desk: "Toothless ye came into this world and toothless you're darn likely to leave it." * * * DEFINITION—Have you heard Harry Rath's definition of Babies?—Cupons on the Bonds of Matrimony. * * * SIGHTSEEING—Our screaming headline relative to the rise in the bus fare caused correspondent P. L. to say "So what" He thinks that the best way to prove the real worth of a ride on the Coral Gables bus system is to ride the last one out of town at night. Says he: "You ride all over Coral Gables sightseeing and if you're lucky you can get a laugh or two from your fellow passengers. It's just like riding a New York cab—20 cents first block; six cents every half mile thereafter—they ought to charge that on the last run." P. L. thinks that they should put an extra man on the last two runs to shout through a megaphone the wonders of Coral Gables. * * * STRONG WIND—Our youngest, in the throes of a galloping case of colic, was howling for all he was worth. The bump awakened him and set him to wailing: "The wind blew me out of bed, Daddy!" * * * FISH STORY—With the usual fishing news usually being confined to reports about catch, weight, etc., a refreshing note enters with the following communication from Tom Henderson: Last Sunday about two dozen of the younger marrieds chartered the good ship "Sonora" to spend the day on the water. In commemoration of a very pleasant outing I have written a "Triolet about the Fish I didn't Catch." Let's get the crowd to go again On what we call a fishing trip I love the food, the girls, the men Let's get the crowd to go again To fool around with cards and then We'll hoist the sniffers—let 'er rip Let's get the crowd to go again On what we call a fishing trip. If you are interested in the "catch", several members of the party caught a mess of grunts. The grunts were induced by over-indulgence in most excellent fried chicken. A touch of sunburn was caught by one or two through over exposure of their epidermis to the glare. A couple of suckers were caught in a bridge game. I caught a little hell from the missus for starting to recite a bit of original verse. And that may dear Jim was the total "catch". * * * PRINTER'S INK—It's a time-worn tradition that the printer's ink flows strongly in the blood of those who come in contact with it, but we believe that Francis Lynch, editor and publisher of "The Cashier", New York publication, must have an extra dose of it. Mrs Lynch, vacationing here, called at the office this week with an urgent request. "Please," he asked, "just let me sit down at the linotype and set a few lines." We acceded, of course, and for half an hour he pecked studiously away. Then, with a happy smile on his face, he thanked us profusely and left, beaming satisfaction.