Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, February 13, 1942, page 5 (of 7)
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 4-1684 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.
Home Front Pledge
Every man, worman and child in the United States of America is a soldier on the home front. Let us dedicate ourselves to unflinching service. May we suggest as a Home Front Pledge to be taken guerilly by every citizen and resident of Coral Gables: That we shall do our part, willing and earnestly, as fighters on the home front, in the regular battle line. That we shall learn the trades of war and defense necessary to carry out any duty that may be assigned to us. That we shall be frugal in consuming the stores that must provide also for our armed services and for our allies. That we shall save and make available for war needs the scrap and that can be salvaged from our home and business transactions. That we shall deny ourselves without grumbling the luxurious and conveniences that war industry cannot supply. That we shall invest at least $2 out of each $100 of income in defense savings stamps or bonds. That we shall pay our taxes cheerfully no matter how hard the pinch may be felt this coming year. That we shall support our local, state and national governments and defense officials whole-heartedly. That we shall repeat no unconfirmed rumors we may hear. That we shall be silent on any movement of army, navy or marine corps personnel that we may observe or learn about. That we shall refuse to criticize, antagonize or deride any religious, racial or sectional group of Americans or Allies of the United States. That we shall observe, promptly and effectively, all blackout and warning regulations. That we shall conserve our strength, energy and spirit as part of a vital national asset—not waste our bodies or minds in unwholesome recreation or destructive habits. That we shall set an example in every task we meet of calm, cheerful, courageous strength. That we shall keep our thumbs up.
Serious Business
Two high officials of the Civilian Defense Administration have warned that Axis planes may very well bomb American cities soon. It can be done, and aside from the terror it might cause, it might serve to hold close to American cities planes which are needed abroad and which are scheduled to leave for far outposts soon. So there is an objective. We have been warned again and again. Cooperate when the civilian defense organizers approach you. Nothing is more futile than calculating the chances of air raids against any American city. As long as there is one chance in a million of such a raid, we should be prepared for it. A raid for which no preparation had been made is incredibly a prospect that we can afford to take no risk, no matter at what odds.
WALTER LIPPMANN
Much better ways will have to be worked out if the American people are to exercise their inalienable right to understand the war. Just how this can best be done under our form of government I do not know. But in a thing of this sort, where there is the will it is always possible to find the way. Perhaps those of us who work as newspapermen in Washington may have something to contribute from our own practical experience. On Tuesday afternoon of last week I attended the White House press conference. It was the first which Mr. Roosevelt had held since the Roberts report on Pearl Harbor. On that day, also, the first news had come out that American troops had landed in Northern Ireland. General MacArthur was fighting in Luzon. The Navy and the Air Corps were fighting in the Straight of Macassar. German submarines were raiding along the Atlantic coast. The information of the joint boards agreed upon during Mr. Churchill's visit had been announced, and in London Mr. Churchill was describing also the general scheme of the unity of the staff command which he and Mr. Roosevelt had arranged. Surely this was a day when there was big news which the people were entitled to understand, and indeed must be enabled to understand. We lined up around the President's desk and, as I remember it, he told us in effect that he did not have anything important for us. Half a dozen of the newspapermen asked him questions bearing directly upon the big news items of the day which were in every one's mind. None of them got anything which could be described as responsive. They made as much progress as a man trying to climb a greased flagpole, and I do not think I was the only one who left the White House feeling frustrated and dispirited, not wiser for the trouble of attending the press conference but much sadder. In thinking it over it has seemed to me that if Mr. Roosevelt is willing to hold personal press conferences, he is making very poor use of them. He appears to think, though occasionally there are exceptions, that if he does not have news to give out which can be put hot onto the ticker and into the headlines, there is not much to be said and his main business is to parry the questions of over-curious reporters. But as a matter of fact straight news can be given out and is usually given out through the White House staff. It certainly is not necessary for the President of the United States to collect the reporters in order to hand out news. The very idea of such a conference is that the President can talk off the record to newspaper men and through them to their editors in order that they may be better able to understand what the news means. Any one can announce news, but only the President and his Cabinet and other high responsible officials can explain it. The difference between news and explanation seems to me not to have been grasped in wartime Washington. I believe this is the fundamental reason why the nation finds itself fighting a war without understanding it. Sooner or later the cry is going to go up that it is the fault of the censor that the people cannot get the news, that they are in the dark. But it is not the fault of the censor. There is plenty of news. The trouble is that there is no continuing and patient explanation of the news. A few concrete examples will, I think, show what I mean. Let us take first the news that the American troops had landed in Northern Ireland at a moment when General MacArthur was fighting with his back to the wall. Surely this was a case when it was not enough to announce the news, when it was very necessary to explain why the troops went to Ireland and not to Luzon. The explanation is no military secret. Indeed, any one can figure it out for himself. But the fact is that most people do not figure it out for themselves, and there are demagogues and agitators who are quick to exploit and bedevil the innocence of the people who are deeply moved about MacArthur but have not had occasions to think the strategic geography of the Philippine Islands and the western Pacific. Yet it would not be giving away information to the Japanese to explain why troops have not been landed in the Bataan peninsula. Thus it is a military secret as to what is the strength of MacArthur's forces and what are his supplies and what help is being gotten to him and how. But it is no military secret that the island of Luzon is surrounded by the Japanese forces, and that Wake and Guam are lost, that the fleet at Hawaii is temporarily crippled as a great offensive force capable of fighting its way across the Pacific to the Philippines, and that Japan has innumerable submarine and air bases in countless islands between the United States and Luzon. All these things are known to anyone who has looked at a map and read the papers. But only when the things which are known are put together by some one in authority does more news become an explanation that makes sense, and answers the perfectly legitimate question why MacArthur has not been reinforced by fresh troops. Take a second example, the question whether it would have been better to keep the whole fleet in the Pacific, and not to detach a fleet for the Atlantic. This is exactly the same kind of question as Mr. Churchill had to answer when he faced the House of Commons, and had to explain why Britain was so weak at Singapore when Japan attacked. There is no reason why Mr. Roosevelt, also, as a leader, should not can should not make his explanation to the American people. There is nothing mysterious about it, nothing secret—indeed, it is obvious to those who have had the chance to study the matter. But it is not obvious even to all of Congress, much less to all the people, and I presume to think that the day after the Roberts report was published was the day for the President to tell the nation the story of his naval policy in the past eighteen months. It is a very creditable story, given the desperately hard choices that had to be made, and I cannot imagine any reason why the President has never told it, why he did not tell it when we went to war, or when he delivered his message to Congress in January, or why he does not tell it now. Why not explain to the people that the fleet in the Pacific plus the ships Britain could send to Singapore was a very good match for Japan until the attack on Pearl Harbor and the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse? Why not point out to them the consequence of the Atlantic route and in the Gulf of Mexico, and why the Congress and the people whether they think it would have been better to have no American fleet in the Atlantic, and whether they think that we should have taken the chance that by blockade of the British Isles the home base of the British fleet could be knocked out as Singapore is knocked out in the Pacific? Why not explain the truth, the immensely gratifying truth, that if we have had reverses in the Pacific, we have played a gallant part in averting even more irreparable reverses in the Atlantic? Why not explain the great role which the Atlantic fleet has played since last spring in making it impossible for Hitler, though he has declared war on us, to strike effectively at us? For him to strike at South America? Why not explain what the Navy has done to make it possible for Brazil and the other exposed American republics to take the risks they have taken at Rio? Nobody can really tell the story and explain it except the President himself, and his immediately responsible officials—Messrs. Hull, Stimson, and Knox. They ought to be telling it, the good with the bad, and the bad with the good. The people can take it, and there will be laid down, the foundations of confidence—that is to say of understanding and of trust.
Anchors Aweigh By BROWN
OUR TOWN by Jim Moore
JIM MOORE We had a letter from George Burr this week stating that he understands that a lot of folks are taking defense too seriously. Now coming on top of all this hulabaloo about not taking it seriously enough, this may seem a bit paradoxical. However George, as hard a working newspaper man as ever blue-penciled a piece of copy, has his point. George, you see, is executive director of the State Defense Council and it's his job to see that things are going smoothly in all parts of the state. He admits that it is probably true that a good many others are not taking it seriously enough but points out that there is a level-headed, common sense middle ground. "One of the first signs of over-enthusiasm," he tells us, "came with the aluminum scrap collection. The purpose of scrap collection was to put to some use the waste metal that was lying around in garages, closets, and attics, doing no one any good. But so enthusiastic were many householders that they bought new aluminum utensils and tossed them on the scrap heap. One man is reported to have contributed an artificial limb in good condition. Uncle Sam does not need that sort of sacrifice and he would rather not have it." George admits that there may come a time when Americans may be called upon to take the locks off their doors and the bumpers off their cars for defense metal; but it hasn't come yet. Until it comes everyone should keep useful articles in use. The "Tallahassee Democrat" points out that another example of unnecessary sacrifice was the shearing of a lot of pretty blonde locks when the mistaken impression swept the country that Uncle Sam needed the hair for cross lines in precision optical instruments and sights. It just isn't so; you can keep your hair for the time being, even though it is blonde and fine. "Lately we have been hearing reports like this: Someone understands that the government wants everybody to grow a garden; someone else understands that if she has two dresses the government wants her to contribute one of them to a surplus garment pool. Neither is so," Burr points out. There is a program to stimulate home gardening but let's keep it within reasonable bounds. Those with suitable backyard plots may grow vegetables for home consumption, but Uncle Sam hasn't asked anyone to dig up his flower beds or lawns. Apartment dwellers are under no pressure to grow onions in flower pots." As we pointed out in last week's column, Gablesites can help in the food for defense problem by requesting Dade County grown vegetables and easing demands on transportation facilities. Dade County growers could also take a tip and save their choice products for home consumption instead of shipping them North and dumping culls on local markets, as some have been doing. It's give and take in this war. The impression about the dresses is equally ridiculous, we hear. For the time being the government has no desire for the dresses. You ladies who have a useable dress in your closet that you don't wear, should either put it to use or to give it to your servant or a welfare agency. As we understand it, the purpose of all defense campaign is to prevent waste and to put all useful articles and materials to work. Burr suggests, that before doing anything, each person should ask himself: "Is this article of any use to me or am I just keeping it because I do not like to throw it away and haven't known what else to do with it?" If you don't need it, it should be turned over to someone or some agency that can use it in its manufactured state and not scrapped until it has ceased to be usable in its condition. Take for example—books. If you don't want them, and nobody else in your family has any desire to keep them on your shelves, don't regard them as potential scrap paper. Turn them over to your local Victory Book committee so that some soldier or sailor may enjoy them. To make this simple, you can take it to your nearest theatre. Right now, it is more essential to make sacrifices of time and energy on defense projects. There is lots to be done, and to date, too few to do it. If you want to help, register with the placement division of the Defense Council on the 9th floor of the Ingraham Building. They take your orders and execute them without complaining or stinting.
Mark Sullivan EXPLAINS PURPOSES OF PRICE CONTROL
It is better to say this now, as warning, than to say it as bitter reproach later on. Right now is a good time to say it because we have this week taken a step which enables us to act on the warning. The warning is for all of us—for the government and for every citizen. The price control which went into effect this week has several purposes, all good. The central purpose is to prevent prices of goods from going up, to prevent inflation. That purpose we can all see. But that central purpose is accompanied by others not all of which are readily understood. Of them all the most important is to preserve the value of our defense bonds. The relation between price control and defense bonds is not universally seen. These defense bonds fill a large place in our daily lives. Every hour radio speakers urge us to buy them. Most of us do buy them, in quantities aggregating hundreds of millions of dollars. For one bond (of the smallest denomination) we pay $18.75. The government says that ten years from now it will pay back our $18.75, plus 3 percent interest for ten years—in all $25. And so the government will. The government will keep its promise to the letter—it will give us twenty-five pieces of money, and each will be a dollar. But the government must do more than live up to the letter of its promise. It must keep its promise in spirit. To do that it is necessary that a dollar ten years from now be the same as the dollar today—the same, that is, in purchasing power. The dollar we get back ten years from now must be able to buy as much goods—as much bread, or sugar or razor blades—as the dollar of today. This can be achieved—provided, and only provided, we prevent inflation. We have this week set out to prevent inflation in a spirit that promises success. Price Administrator Leon Henderson has power to prevent rise in price of goods generally. He, jointly with Secretary of Agriculture Wickard, has power to prevent rise in price of a special group of foods—farm crops. The two officials this week united in a public declaration that they will prevent price rises. Their declaration of intention is direct and convincing. True, there is an area of prices over which they have no direct control. That is, prices of labor and services—in other words, wages. There are other officials, especially the new war labor board, who have an indirect but great power to prevent rise in wages. If the war labor board and other officials prevent rise in wages; if Mr. Wickard prevents rise in prices of crops, which is food and clothing; and if Mr. Henderson prevents rise in goods generally, especially manufactured goods—the sum of the preventions by the three will almost certainly prevent inflation. For completeness it should be said there are still other causes of inflation not within the power or responsibility of these officials. But it is tenable to say that if these officials prevent rise in wages, crops, and manufactured goods—then inflation will be prevented. We had better help them, for it is to the interest of all to do so. For our sake and their sake, we had better hope they succeed. For if they do not succeed, we will have inflation. Inflation would mean misery for all of us, and a special reproach to those who, call, to prevent it. The reproach would come from everybody. It would come with special poignancy from those who hold defense bonds. For the sake of the integrity of the dollar, which includes the integrity of defense bonds, it is imperative that our program for preventing inflation be successful. Already the slight beginning of inflation which we have had has in some degree reduced the value of the defense bonds we have bought. Price Administrator Henderson says that between September and the end of last year the rate of about 11⁄2 per cent a month—for convenience, call it 10 per cent in six months. Now apply that 10 per cent increase in the price level to defense bonds. To do this we must turn dollars into goods, we must look at a transaction not in terms of dollars, but of goods. You bought a defense bond six months ago. You paid $18.75 for it. That $18.75 six months ago would have bought about 10 per cent more goods than it will buy today. What has happened so far is not seriously material. A 10 per cent change in the price level in six months in one direction or the other is not a thing to be concerned about. In almost any six months period, under any conditions, prices move as much as 10 per cent in one direction or another. But if that one 10 per cent rise be followed by another in the next six months, and still another in the ensuing six months, and so on—that would be inflation. We must prevent it. The step taken this week seems to promise to do so. No advantage a farmer would get from higher prices for crops, no advantage a worker would get from higher wages, no advantage any seller would get from higher prices for his wares would compensate for the disaster of inflation. If you need some article, and it is being offered for sale by local stores, don't hesitate to buy it. It will not be for sale the minute Uncle Sam decides he needs it more than you do. By this, we don't mean hoarding. But take your defense and war work with a grain of sense, and everything will work out all right.
THIS ONE'S ON YOU
ON THE SPOT—We heard a rather amusing sidelight on the hold-up of Jim English, which made news last week. Jim entered his Blue Road residence and immediately saw evidence of a ransacking. As his inspection progressed he finally came to the window which had been broken by the intruder to gain entrance. Jim's blood began to boil and he muttered to himself, "I'd like to get my hands on the dirty so-and-so that did this." Just then he felt cold steel rammed into his ribs and a harsh voice blasted into his ear, "Well, here I am, buddy." WHISTLE—That noise that sounds like a combination between a siren and a steamboat whistle you've been hearing the last couple of days is coming from the city equipment yard. Under A. B. Curry's direction, the boys have been experimenting with a "home-made" whistle to serve as an air raid alarm. The problem that confronts them is to make a whistle with a distinctive tone that won't be confused with a police, ambulance or fire engine siren and that will be heard all over town. Goin'g [?] the boys are trying out the old "birch whistle" method we all used when we were kids. A sleeve over the cylinder provides the tone variation when it is moved up and down. They're still working on it and it looks like they have something there. INDIGNANT—Tell a house wife that her kitchen's dirty and you have a war on your hands that would stump even General MacArthur. Well, the local fire laddies pride themselves as housekeepers as well, and they're madly irritated at the grand jury report that their kitchen is dirty and needs painting. They point out that it was just painted a few months ago and that furthermore, they'll match kitchens with the wives of any of the grand jurors. We took a looksee and are inclined to agree.