Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, January 30, 1942, 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 4-1688 Member, Florida Press Association National Editorial Association Represented in the National Advertising Field by the American Press Association, New York City SUBSCRIPTION RATES Six Months $1.25 One Year $2.00 Out of Town $3.00 Entered as second class matter May 21, 1926, at the Postoffice at Miami, Florida, under Act of March 3, 1879.
The Reeder 'Plan'
It begins to look like Miami's Mayor Reeder, in advancing his consolidation plan, has bitten off more than he can chew. As far as we can learn, Mayor Cliff's plan has fallen 'on fallow ground with the exception of a handful of "unidentified taxpayers", who wrote anonymous letters to his honor, commending the idea. We attended a meeting of the city officials of all the smaller communities in the county on Monday night, and when those city fathers got through knocking Reeder's plan about, it looked like the sparrow that got caught in the badminton game. It doesn't take much delving into proven statistics to find out that small units of government operate with much greater efficiency than large units. Take Coral Gables as an example. It costs about 70 cents per parcel to collect and assess taxes in Coral Gables, while Miami, with many more parcels, frittering its collecting and assessing costs at approximately $1.00 per parcel. It's hard to really criticise the Reeder Plan, because the Miami mayor, to date, really hasn't shown any definite plan, but a conglomeration of vague and hazy ideas that make little or no sense. But from what little we do learn of the mayor's idea, we can't see it for Coral Gables. In the first place, this city is a distinctive and entirely different kind of community from Miami. During the last 17 years, we have built up a city that isn't equalled anywhere in the nation. We have a planned city, with high ideals, devoted to peaceful living and the advancement of culture. Here are found none of the subversive activities that besmirch the escutcheon of our sister city, Miami. There are no bars, gambling, graft and houses of assignation. But once a county unit plan went into effect, with a central policing authority, there would be no way for we citizens of Coral Gables to keep out those things we have fought so bitterly during our city's existence. From the sentiments expressed at Monday's meeting, the other small communities feel the same way about it. There are several things about Reeder's Plan and its inopportune advancement that have a peculiar odor. Firstly, we would like to know who are the "unidentified taxpayers" who are so willing to put forth $40,000 in good hard cash to present the plan to a special session of the legislature. Secondly, it would be interesting to hear why Mayor Reeder, if he is really serious about this, popped the idea before a Junior Chamber of Commerce meeting instead of first consulting the various city officials of the communities that would be affected. Lastly, we wonder why his honor went off "half-cocked" with his idea, instead of presenting a plan that was concrete and detailed. If Mr. Reeder hoped to use this idea as a stepping-stone to a seat in Congress we're afraid he has selected a very sorry vehicle. If it was inspired by the fact that Miami's treasury is empty and that city must begin to look for new sources of revenue, we again fear that it will be met with thumbs down. But giving Mayor Reeder credit for fathering a sincere effort to reduce expense in the county, let's have a detailed analysis of the plan for thorough consideration and study. But first, we suggest that the Miami city fathers put their own house in order before offering suggestions to communities that seem to be operating in a satisfactory manner.
The Home Front
The war and the vast defense effort is definitely a challenge to business and industry on the home front. The Government has rightly converted our large producing units to the creation of arms and armament so needed by the war machine. The automobile manufacturers are making tanks; other industrial plants have ceased making articles which adorn our kitchen and dining room tables. Thus the field, formerly crowded with big-time competition and heavily capitalized producing units, is left wide open to local capital and small business. Coral Gables business must attempt to fill the void left by the conversion of big business to its defense effort. Local grocers and meat markets can keep Gableites' cars going. Local milk producers, cattle raisers, vegetable farmers must keep us self-contained and not reliant upon the rest of the country. The rubber shortage will keep local trade in Gables stores—because defense-conscious citizen will think twice before putting a few unnecessary miles on his tires. It's up to the local business men to give these customers service—and good service. It's up to Gables merchants to have as good and varied a line of merchandise as it is possible for him to have. It's up to Gables merchants to make shopping at home attractive and comfortable for this new trade. It's a challenge which must be met—and met squarely!
WALTER LIPPMANN
(Continued from Page 1) Pearl Harbor system—is glaringly obvious. We have seen the Army-Navy-OPM system caught without the necessary plant for expanding the military requirements and for expanding production by the conversion of commercial industry. We have seen that no adequate provision was made for conserving the supplies and for amassing stock piles of rare and imported materials which were certain to be cut off when war broke out. We have seen that no one in the Administration was able to offer firm and commanding leadership in the critical matter of labor-management relations or of price control. We have seen a lamentable lack of coherence in the several agencies which deal with foreign affairs—that is to say the State Department, the Treasury, and the Rockefeller organizations, the Wallace board, Mr. Jesse Jones, and the Maritime Commission. We have seen the Office of Civilian Defense. In none of these fields is there as yet clarity of purpose, definite and sufficient authority, and in some critical positions there are bottlenecks of downright incompetence. Weakness cannot be remedied by making a new blueprint chart and then reshuffling the same old faces. For the seat of the trouble is that the President himself has not fully adjusted his own mind and habits to the size and the complexity and the difficulty of the undertaking in which he is engaged. For that reason he does not delegate power and responsibility. For that reason he does not dismiss men to whom power and responsibility cannot be delegated, and he does not call in men to whom it can be delegated. For that reason, the solution of the great problems of war organization, the first consideration is almost invariably how to save some one's face rather than how to do most effectively what should be done. This is soft leadership—in quality far below what the country is ready for and in spirit far below what the occasion calls for. Not only will it fail to produce the results which, as commander-in-chief, the President must have in order to win the war, but it will strain to the breaking point the patience of the people, and it will before long, if it is not remedied, grievously impair the President's leadership. For Mr. Roosevelt is operating under a system where the whole responsibility is concentrated upon himself alone, and as a result every mistake and every failure falls upon him alone, and every criticism, no matter how constructive and loyally well-meant, whittles away at his prestige and his influence, here and throughout the world. This is a very serious matter. For no sane and conscientious man in Congress or in the press or on the platform can do anything but to uphold the hands of the President, to lighten his burdens and to strengthen him. He is the President of the United States for the duration of the war and the fate of the country is in his hands. But it is impossible to suspend criticism of incompetent incompetence or failures in the administration of the war effort. For because Mr. Roosevelt maintains a personal and paternalistic and protective relationship with his appointees, never standing them up on their own feet with clear and fixed responsibility, every criticism directed against a lieutenant strikes the commander-in-chief. Loyalty to subordinates is a great and engaging quality. But it ought not to be confused with deciding them power on the one hand and then, chivalrously, refusing to hold them responsible. The extreme example, which, however, illustrates the principle, is the case of Mrs Roosevelt and the Office of Civilian Defense. In theory the President appointed Mayor LaGuardia as director and the director appointed Mrs. Roosevelt as assistant. What has been the result? There is deep dissatisfaction throughout the country with the way civilian defense has been administered—a sentiment clearly reflected in the vote in the House of Representatives, and indeed acknowledged by the President in his appointment of Mr. Landis. Yet though Mr. Landis has been brought in, Mayor LaGuardia and Mrs. Roosevelt remain more or less where they were, and nobody well know who really has authority in civilian defense or where the responsibility lies. Now in the case of Mrs. Roosevelt this is particularly awkward and embarrassing. She is the wife of the President and the First Lady of the Land. At the same time she administers important aspects of civilian defense and she makes daily pronouncements upon matters of great public interest. To whom is Mrs. Roosevelt accountable? To Mayor LaGuardia? To Mr. Landis? Is she to be immune from public criticism, as she was, for example, in the Congressional debates when every one was thinking about her and no one mentioned her? If so, then she occupies a dangerously privileged position. On the other hand, if she is to be treated as any other public official, the fact that she is Mrs. Roosevelt and that she lives in the White House means that everything she does involves her husband, and every criticism of her is an injury to the prestige of her husband. There is, of course, no one else in the Administration who is so indissolubly connected with the President. But there are many others who, because of the President's loyalty to his friends, are carried along and nursed along as members of a political family. They are reshuffled but almost never displaced, and the weak sisters have to be supported by the President, and to save their faces, they are kept on, thus blocking the promotion of abler men. Wars cannot be won by such soft, cozy good-fellowship in the highest places. For in war the test is results and not good intentions, success and not amiability, efficiency and not Auld Lang Syne. Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.
Spoiling the Home Defense Blackout
BY BROWN [Cartoon: In the window labeled INFLATION WARNING, a figure marked HIGH FARM PRICES stands waving a flashlight marked IM TOO BUSY! onto a darkened city street, while U. S. PRICE CONTROL DRIVE operates below.]
OUR TOWN
by Jim Moore If you happen to be driving along the streets of Coral Gables, stepping along at a pretty fast clip, and you hear a voice thundering at you out of nowhere, don't be too alarmed. It isn't your conscience—it's "the Voice of the Coral Gables Police Department." In reality the "Voice" is that of Sergeant Floyd P. Brasher stepped up a few hundred times by means of a large amplifier mounted on top of a police car. The equipment was purchased originally for use during blackouts and air raid alarms. Then the bright idea was conceived of using it also to curb traffic violations. It has worked out remarkably well. We took a ride with Sergeant Brasher the other morning and received a first-hand demonstration of the system. It was almost uncanny to see two whole blocks of rapidly moving traffic slow down to the 15-mile limit when Brasher's voice came booming out, "Everybody drive carefully, please. Slow down to 15 miles an hour in the business district. Thank you." Brasher doesn't believe in snarling a bawling out into the mike when he sees a motorist violating a traffic ordinance. Instead, he politely calls attention to the mistake and asks the driver to be more careful in the future. Nine times out of ten, the driver looks startled, then sheepish and then nods that he understands. Since the experiment was started, Brasher has worked out a line of patter to take care of most every incident. For example, we were coming down Coral Way following a local woman who was whizzing along about 45 miles per hour. Then came the voice booming from behind her: "Will the lady in the maroon Pontiac please look at her speedometer. Does it say 45 miles per hour? Mine does and the speed limit is 25 miles per hour. Please slow down." The lady seemed startled at first. She looked at her radio, then out the window and finally spied us in the rear vision mirror. Immediately her brake lights flashed the signal that she had gotten our message. Then she waved her hand in confirmation. Driving down a residential street we came upon a car, parked the wrong way. The police car slowed to a halt and the voice boomed, "Will the gentleman who owns the green Ford please come out and move it." A screen door slammed and out rushed the owner of the car, blinking in amazement. Brasher explained his transgression and the car was quickly moved into the driveway. "I never realized, until you told me," he said, "that if somebody came along and smacked me I wouldn't have a chance to recover damages. That's a great system you have there and thanks a lot. You'll find my car in the driveway every time after this." One of the sergeant's favorite spots is the circle on Ponce de Leon Boulevard, which commands a clear view of the intersection of University Drive and the Boulevard. Nine drivers out of ten seemed to disregard the through-traffic "Stop" sign and came barging across. As each got out onto the Boulevard, he was reminded that he had broken the law. And in every instance there came the sheepish grin and the wave of the hand that indicated the driver understood. Brasher says that since he started to use the loud speaker about two weeks ago, that he has noticed a very appreciable cutting down of speed in the business district. He also says that double parking has been practically eliminated. U-turns have also been reduced. "They never know when and where I'm going to pop up," he says. "After they've been called down once, with everybody in two blocks listening in, they don't forget it." Pedestrians seem enthusiastic about the speaker. As we cruised along, friendly comments were shouted at us. "Atta boy, officer. Slow 'em down. There's too much speeding around here," one woman called as we passed by. Another, an elderly gentleman, came up as we were parked at an intersection and asked the name of the city manager. "I want to write him a letter," he said, "and tell him what a fine system this is. It's just the thing to cut down speeding and also accidents." Brasher tells us that accidents in the business district have been practically nil since he started using the loud speaker. "It makes everybody traffic conscious," he explains, "and that's all we need to eliminate auto mishaps. If the average driver will think a minute he won't violate the law." The sergeant also uses the speaker to plug the sale of Defense Bonds, tying it in neatly with his safety talks. "Accidents cost money," he cautions. "Drive carefully and spend that money for Defense Bonds. They pay dividends, accidents never do." Coral Gables experiences its heaviest traffic flow between 7:30 and 9 in the morning and between 4 and 7 in the evening, we learned. During these hours, Brasher has his busiest moments, cruising through the streets blaring forth his advice and pointing out transgressions. It's a unique idea—this "Voice of Conscience"—but it brings results. So if you are the recipient of one of the broadcasts, don't get mad. Take it like 99.44 per cent of your fellow drivers do—with a grin and a wave of the hand. Then don't do it again. Walter Lippmann, Mark Sullivan, "Our Town" and "This One's On You" are regular Editorial Page Features. Enjoy them every week in The Coral Gables Riviera.
Mark Sullivan
The President has appointed what is called a "war labor board." This is the end, for the moment, of a series of events which the public should understand. On December 3 the House passed a bill having to do with labor unions and labor relations. The bill was not merely an emergency measure having to do with strikes in defense industries. It was a comprehensive measure having to do with many aspects of labor relations. It was the fruit of three years of intermittent hearings and debates, prolonged and thorough, on all aspects of labor relations. The bill dealt with, among other aspects: strikes by unions, lockouts by employers, mediation boycotts, picketing in general, picketing of workers' homes, registry of labor unions, publicity for financial affairs of unions, the closed shop. That the bill dealt with these subjects is all that is said here. Nothing is said here about the merit of the bill or of its parts. For the purpose of the present column it is enough to say the measure was passed by the House. It was passed by a vote of 252 to 136—practically 2 to 1. Plainly, the House felt that Congress ought to legislate on labor relations. There was much evidence that the country felt so too. Connally's Charge Recalled The bill went to the Senate. There it went to the Committee on Labor and Education. There were charges or intimations that this committee, and its chairman, Senator Elbert D. Thomas, of Utah, might be unsympathetic to the bill. On the floor of the Senate, Mr. Connally, of Texas, intimated that Senator Thomas's committee sometimes practice delay, or otherwise kills, bills having to do with labor relations. This charge, however, while an important matter, is not material here. No opinion is here expressed about it. As respects the present bill, Senator Thomas, under some pressure from Senators favoring action on it, said he was willing to expedite hearings. He said that his committee "likely could be ready to make a report the following week." That was on December 8. The "following week" would be the week beginning December 15. Before the following week arrived, before the Senate Labor Committee could take action on the House bill, it received a request from some members of the Administration. They included Secretary of Labor Perkins, the labor head of OPM, Mr. Sidney Hillman and others. Their request was that the Senate Labor Committee defer action on the House bill or any other labor measure. They put their request on the ground that the President was about to take a step about labor relations on his own account. To this request the Senate Labor Committee assented. There was assent not only by members friendly to the Administration who believed to oppose labor legislation. These assumed that after the President had taken whatever step he contemplated the Senate would then resume consideration of labor legislation. On December 17, the President called a "labor-industry" conference made up of twelve labor leaders, twelve heads of industries. These could not agree. They all, however, accepted an agreement presented by a representative of the President. The agreement was: "(1) There shall be no strikes or lockouts. (2) All disputes shall be settled by peaceful means. (3) The President shall set up a proper war labor board to handle these disputes." The war labor board thus provided for has now been named by the President. It consists of four labor representatives, four industrial leaders, and four supposed to be impartial representatives of the public. Board's Scope Limited The War Labor Board, and the whole step taken by the President, has to do with one area of labor relations alone, limited in scope and in time. It is limited to the "duration of the war." And it is limited to labor disputes in war industries—in the words of the President's executive order: "Labor disputes which might interrupt work which contributes to the effective prosecution of the war." In this situation, two important conditions stand out: Whatever is now done about labor relations in war industries is not to rest on law. It does not derive from any act of Congress. It is wholly on the authority of, and within the hands of, the President and his appointees. About the broad area of labor relations in general, nothing is done. Congress started to legislate on it. Congress was interrupted by a request made to the Administration to the labor committee of the Senate. Unless now the Senate resumes action and insists that its Labor Committee resume action—the result will be no labor legislation. Such legislation has been knocking at the door of Congress for more than three years. Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.
This ONE'S ON YOU
HARD TACK—Motorists in Coral Gables are getting down to real hardtack insofar as travel is concerned. Proprietor Peacock of the Coral Gables Cycle Shop reports more than 100 bicycles sold since the tire ultimatum was issued. Many of the hundred, Peacock reported, were used and rebuilt, due to inability to secure new models. This trend toward self-locomotion is evidenced in the large number of cyclists seen riding through the Gables each evening. Many have discovered that cycling is good exercise as well as easy on the pocketbook. * * * PUMPERNICKEL — We learned (while visiting Leon's Bakery the other day) something about pumpernickel. It seems that everybody can't make pumpernickel—in fact, tha it's quite an art. Being an ardent admirer of pumpernickel in all its various shapes and forms, we asked why. Well, it seems that the baking of pumpernickel requires the use of a steam oven, an expensive piece of equipment not possessed by all bakeries. Guess we'll have to form a pumpernickel club before we'll be able to get all the pumpernickel we can eat. * * * ORATOR—We walked into the Gables Theatre the other morning and finding no one in the office we were about to leave when we heard a loud voice in the auditorium. Peering in we saw Jesse, the colored porter, facing the vast assemblage of empty seats and orating for all he was worth. Must have been practicing for a lodge meeting. * * * ROLL YOUR OWN—Collis Coe has forsaken ready-made cigarettes for the make-'em-yourself variety, but is still endeavoring to master the art. The other afternoon, he not only had one half of Tommy Hand's bar littered with paper and tobacco from unsuccessful attempts, but most all of the customers had become so intrigued that they were all trying to roll their own. (With Collis' makings.)