Coral Gables Riviera

CORAL GABLES RIVIERA AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Published every Friday by the Miami Riviera Publishing Co., 306 Coral Way, Coral Gables, Florida. 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 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.

Gables Falls Short

Coral Gables, which usually rises first to any civic duty, has fallen far short on one vital defense task. Captain J. H. Hardin of the Coral Gables Fire Department tells us that he has been unable to get volunteer fire wardens in Districts 4, 9 and 11. What makes the situation worse is the fact that it is not because the people in those districts do not know that fire wardens are needed. Firemen have called on many of the residents and in response to their requests for volunteers, they have been greeted with mumbled excuses and evasive answers. To refuse such a duty in time of war is no less than disgraceful. That it should happen in Coral Gables is completely beyond our understanding. Being a fire warden is not a difficult task. It requires a few hours of training, but no heavy work is involved. Fire wardens are vitally essential to the defense program. In the hope that there are some residents in those districts who will not shirk their responsibility as citizens, The Riviera outlines the boundaries. If you live in one of the districts, and are willing to volunteer, contact Captain Hardin at the Fire Department immediately. DISTRICT 4-Bounded on the north by Coral Way; on the east by Granada Boulevard; on the south by Bird Road, and on the west by Red Road. DISTRICT 9-Bounded on the north by Miller Road; on the east by Ponce de Leon Boulevard; on the south by Sunset Road, and on the west by Red Road. DISTRICT 11-Bounded on the north by Prospect Drive; on the east and south by Biscayne Bay and on the west by Erwin Drive. Let's hope that next week's Riviera will report these districts fully manned by fire wardens.

To Both of Them

We know of no greater tribute to a man's ability than that paid to A. B. Curry by the City Commission of Coral Gables, when it unanimously passed a resolution making his job of City Manager available to him any time within the next year. Curry has gone on to a bigger job-a tougher job. The position of City Manager of Miami has long been regarded as being directly behind the eight ball. But the citizens of Coral Gables are firmly convinced that A. B. is the man to handle the situation. From the way he has gotten started, without fanfare and fireworks, but in a quiet, businesslike way, it looks like we Gablesites are right. In taking over the new position, he has over 8,000 loyal boosters, rooting for him in the community he has served so well. In George Shaw the Gables commission has found an able successor to Mr. Curry. We doubt, if we looked all over the nation, could we find a man as capable of handling the situation. Mr. Shaw is on intimate terms with all our city's problems. He has dealt with them and lost sleep over them since he first came to this city in 1926. His is a multiple task. The new position is merely added to his other titles as director of finance, director of public safety, city clerk and tax collector-jobs enough to stagger most men. But we know that Shaw, like Curry, has the ability. And to both of them go our best wishes for a successful administration.

WALTER LIPPMANN

SAN FRANCISCO-From what I have seen in Southern California I have the very strongest impression that the control exercised by Washington is too remote for efficiency and that some way must be found by which urgent military and civil questions can be decided on the Pacific Coast itself. I am not speaking of the general strategical planning of the great war, but of the internal and external defense of this combat area which contains the main bases and some of the principal arsenals of the Pacific war. Any one who comes here from Washington will, I believe soon be convinced that the distance is too great, that communication is too difficult, and that the questions are ofteen too peculiar to be dealt with by referring them back and forth between the many separate government departments in the capital and their many separate subordinates out here. I, myself, for example, have had two personal experiences in California, trifling, perhaps, which nevertheless are, I believe, illustrative. Before leaving Washington I was given permission to visit some of the important base areas on the Pacific Coast. My credentials named certain officers and their commands. The first time I used the credentials it turned out that the officer named in my papers from Washington had in fact been retired quite some time ago. No doubt this was no more than a clerical error by one bureau of one large department in Washington. But it does suggest how remote is Washington when even one bureau concerned with such matters can fail to be vividly and wholly aware of the very name of the man who commands one of the most important bases in continental United States. My second experience was with credentials from Washington authorizing me to visit certain plants producing weapons. My Washington papers named one specific plant in Southern California which I was allowed to visit. As a matter of fact, I was actually taken without papers to two plants and was invited to visit several others. There was nothing in the notion, which seemed to prevail in Washington, and involved a lot of time and paper work, that Washington really controlled who visited what plant in California. The only point in mentioning these things is that they illustrate the general conclusion, which few out here would dispute, that in spite of the feverish urgent on Pearl Harbor there is yet no solution in this vulnerable region of the problem of adequate authority and of unified command and of clearly fixed responsibility. I visited one base area which must be protected at all costs. Undoubtedly much has been accomplished since December 7th. The Navy, and Army, the Civilian Defense, the Department of Justice, and the local government were alert and in close and friendly relations. But my impression was that there existed no clear division of authority, much less a final over-all authority, and that in matters which might at any moment become critically dangerous, the several commanders and civilian officials on the spot were entangled in confusing theoretical, ideological and academic discussions with officials in Washington. I was unable to feel that the officials at their desks in Washington could fully grasp the practical questions they were trying to decide, or could realize how urgent they are. Officers and civilian officials, who may at any moment be face to face with the enemy striking from without and within, were still corresponding with Washington about questions which call for the equipment of constitutional lawyers, diplomats, economists, sociologists, politicians and even journalists. Now it is inconceivable that they can run their whole show and all their energy into protecting this base against what might be irreparable damage if they are not allowed to decide what is to be done on their own responsibility, and to get prompt approval or modification of their decisions from high government authority nearer to the situation than Washington can hope to be. When one considers the size of the country, the complexity of the war, the many ordinances, the many civilian departments concerned with security, and the multiplicity of local authority, the theory, the doctrine, the centralization, it does not seem possible that the right measures can be taken in time by invoking the blessed words "Co-ordination, co-operation, and consultation." War requires unified, undivided, unshared and swift command, and to be effective these things must be exercised and enforced by men who are not too remote from the scene of action. I do not know how it is to be done. But I am satisfied that there is needed in the Pacific Coast region not only unity of military command at the top, with a direct chain of unified command to each critical position, but also a unity of civil authority, a something in the nature of a governor-general with cabinet council entrusted with most of the war powers now lodged in Washington. It is easy enough to think of all the reasons why this is novel and unprecedented and difficult to do. But if it is a necessary thing to do, we ought not to wait for another Pearl Harbor before doing it. How the fact is that the Pacific Coast is an absolutely vital region both to the defensive and offensive power of the United States. It is very much more vulnerable than we like to realize. It is certain, I believe, that the full security of the Pacific region requires extraordinary powers, and that there is not now the necessary authority, the necessary organization of command and administration for doing what the situation requires. Nor will there be, I submit, as long as the local military and civil responsibility is so scattered and the control from Washington is so remote, so indirect, yet so pervasive and inhibiting, as it now is. The local obstacle to thorough measures is, it seems to me, a false perspective in Washington and to a considerable extent on the Pacific Coast as well. There is a general hesitation, about exercising powers which do affect conventional regular law, and of concentrating these powers where they can be effectively exercised. This hesitation arises from scruples, which are quite proper in time of peace, against overriding private interests, vested interests, local and departmental prerogatives. But these hesitations will be seen in proper perspective when we take as our standard of judgment the fact that the damage done by acting promptly and drastically can be repaired while the damage which may result from inaction can be irreparable. It may be unpleasant to lock the stable door tight while the horse is still there. But it is far more unpleasant to lock it after the horse is stolen. The rights we suspend as a precaution can be restored and the injuries, which may be considerable, can be compensated. With wisdom, humanity, and imagination it is quite possible to see to it that measures of full security inflict no irreparable damage on individuals and on private interests, no damage that cannot somehow be made good when the danger is passed. But if for lack of full measures of security we suffer an injury like that of Pearl Harbor, the damage is irreparable: the time lost and the ground lost by such a blow can be recovered only by the expenditure of thousands of lives. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)

That Shining Example BY BROWN

HAVE THAT LEAKY PAIL FIXED-WAR'S ON! NO MORE WASTE! GOV'T RESOURCES GOV'T ECONOMY FARM BONUS WASTE NEW DEAL PRESS AGENTS WASTE BUREAUCRACY WASTE POLITICAL WASTE OK! HOME RESOURCES PUBLIC

OUR TOWN by Jim Moore

One summer, not too many years ago, an 18-year-old boy was sitting on the front porch of his Atlanta, Ga. home talking with his mother. Their conversation rambled, and then the youth spied Bill Middlebrooks, a chum, coming up the street. He watched for a moment and then clutched his mother's arm. "I just had a funny feeling that Bill is going to be killed," he said. His mother tush-tushed at the horrible thought, but three weeks later Middlebrooks was killed in a railroad wreck. This strange premonition might have been forgotten but for an incident that happened a few weeks later. The lad had another "funny sensation" that the house across the street was going to burn down and four days later it was nothing but smoldering cinders. That got the boy to probing his gift of intuition. An Atlanta paper published the story and a theatre offer followed. Since that time Jay Clarke, as a professional "mentalist", has answered over 100,000 questions a year. We talked with Clarke who is appearing at the Gables Theatre, trying to find out a little more about this strange power. Was it really something or just theatrical hocus-pocus? We still don't know and Clarke claims he doesn't either. "I don't know," he said. "I don't understand it myself. The best way I can explain it is that it's 50 percent intuition and the rest showmanship and applied psychology." Jay says that Dr. Banks Ryan, a leading psychologist, had advanced a theory that certain persons are born gifted with what he calls, "extra sensory perception". Ryan has conducted autopsies on the bodies of several deceased "mentalists" or "psychics" and discovered that in all, the pineal gland in the brain was enlarged. Thomas Edison, he points out, had powers along that line. Clarke met Edison in Fort Myers, and the famous inventor told him that he was able to sit in his office in Menlo Park, with his back to the door, and call any of his 50 employees by name when they entered, without looking at them. Whatever power Clarke has, his chosen field has brought him many strange adventures. Once in Valley Stream, Long Island, a little Italian approached him with a strange tale. A neighbor woman had put a curse on him two years previous, and everything he ate turned to fire in his stomach, causing him terrific pain. Now Clarke knew that such things as "curses" were so much bunk, but he realized that the Italian had built up a psychosis about the witch and actually imagined the burning sensations. So pretending dead seriousness, he made several passes over his crystal ball, uttered a lot of meaningless mumbo-jumbo and then gravely told the man to get 10 eggs from a certain type of hen and eat one raw every day in a glass of milk until they were all gone. Later in another town, the same fellow burst into the office of the thea-

tre where Jay was appearing, and began tossing money on the table. "I'm cured," he shouted. "The tenth day the burning stopped." The little man still thinks that Jay can cast out witches. Perhaps one of the most gruesome experiences happened in Buffalo, N. Y. Clarke was on the stage, going through his act, when he came upon a question, "If you're so smart, where's the body of Molly Ward." "Molly Ward had been missing for two weeks. Blood stains had been found and the story was creating a sensation in Buffalo. "I don't know what came over me, or why I ever said it," he relates, "but the words popped out, 'Molly Ward has been chopped up and made in to sausages and is being eaten by the people of Buffalo'." After the show, a detective called on Clarke and told him that ridiculous as his story sounded, he had a hunch to follow it up. The officer discovered that Molly's husband had a friend in the meat packing business. He secured a warrant and searched the place and in the bone pile found human teeth, which a dentist identified as Mrs. Ward's. Justice was never done, however, as it was impossible to produce a corpus delecti. His experiences also have their humorous side. A lad once asked him if he would get a new job soon. "Yes," replied the mentalist, "in about a month and you'll make twice the money you're making now." "Shucks," said the boy, "I'm working for my pa and I don't make anything." Probably one of the most sensational episodes took place in Redondo Bench, Cal. when Clarke got a question, "Can I get away with what I'm planning?" "You're planning murder," Clarke flashed back. "Don't do it. You'll be caught." Two days later a man was beaten to death and when Charles Tedesco, the murderer was caught, he confessed that he had written the question which Jay had correctly interpreted. Clarke has advised many movie stars and once claims to have saved Sidney Blackmer's life by advising him not to go to New York for a part in a play. Blackmer cancelled his plane reservation and the plane crashed, killing all aboard. After listening to all this, we're in the market for a slightly enlarged, second-hand pineal gland. It ought to come in handy in the newspaper business.

Mark Sullivan

The price control law was enacted the opening week of February. The Price Administrator, Mr. Leon Henderson, was appointed, and confirmed by the Senate on Monday of this week, February 9. The mechanism is all set for keeping prices down and avoiding ultimate inflation. Yet, at the same moment, there are under way two actions which, if successful, would make the price control law ineffective, render Mr. Henderson helpless. Several large C. I. O. unions demand a rise in wage rates-basing their demand on the ground that cost of living has gone up. At the same time, spokesmen for farm interests in Congress are trying to bring about a rise in the "ceiling" over crop prices set up in the recent price control law. If either of these efforts is successful, it will be a justification for success by the other. If the farm leaders succeed in elevating the standard of crop prices, that will lead to increase in the cost of living. Thereupon C. I. O. will have reason for demanding yet another increase in wage rates. It works both ways. If C. I. O. wins its present demand for increase in wage rates, the farm leaders will use that as justification for yet another ris in the ceiling over crop prices. In other words, if either of the present actions is successful, both will be successful. Thereupon the general price-level will be one round farther up the rising spiral-and with still another spiral in sight, and then still another and another. Both the pending actions threaten to wreck Mr. Henderson and price control. Yet Mr. Henderson has no direct authority over either. Over wages he has no control whatever. The demand of C. I. O. for increase of wage rates can be granted or denied by either of two authorities-the new war labor board, or President Roosevelt. The war labor board has official jurisdiction over wage disputes. And President Roosevelt began last week a system of informal personal conferences with the heads of both the great labor organizations, C. I. O. and A. F. of L. If Mr. Roosevelt urges them, as a matter of policy, in the interest of avoiding inflation, to refrain from insisting on wage increases, presumably the labor heads would be willing. In any event, all Mr. Henderson can do is to ask Mr. Roosevelt and the labor board to let wage rates go up. He can only see his influence with them, point out to them the consequences of granting wage increases. About increase in crop prices, the situation differs somewhat. The price control law as passed

this 'N THAT for You

REAL STUFF-There's nothing like a good, clean hobby to take your mind off your troubles-and speed up your working efficiency, too, says Arch Cassidy, who really knows what working efficiency is. So Arch got himself a movie camera. He got it last summer, so he could take plenty of pictures on vacation in North Carolina, and in order to begin early on the picture of Nancy, the Cassidy two-year-old. So Arch took his pictures in North Carolina. Later, on a trip to Cuba, he took a lot more shots of the Cuban capital, the beach, historic Matanzas and countryside. He even took the camera on a hunting trip around Apalachicola as a record of his prowess as a huntsman. Well, last week Arch decided it was time to show off all this picture record. Not having a screen of his own, he hied himself to the home of a friend, where large preparations were made to view the Pictures of the Year. He had four complete reels by then. The first reel reeled itself off. It was indeed a remarkable film, containing gorgeous technicolor shots of Havana harbor superimposed on Mantanzas Bay. The audience was impressed (but not!) but Arch's face was white as a 10-foot expanse of white. The developing studios had even made a remark on this one. It was "Film not exposed." The third reel was apparently the hunting trip, showing as it did a few squirrels and turkeys transparently hanging through the cypress swamps. But the fourth reel was what really brought down the house. The developing studios had captioned this also: "Keystone reel; no film." Arch is thinking of taking up bicycling as a hobby now.-H. M. H. SOLDIER SHAW-Coral Gables now has a draft-able city manager. One of the first persons to register with Board 7 over the week-end was George Shaw, who was under the wire about a month. George was born on March, 1897, and will be 45 his next birthday.

EXPLAINS PURPOSES OF PRICE CONTROL

set up a standard, a maximum. The standard is 110 per cent of parity price. However, after the law was enacted, Mr. Henderson united with Secretary of Agriculture Wickard in a public statement that they would keep crop prices at about the present level, which is roughly 100 per cent of parity. This can be done, for Mr. Wickard has powers of his own, outside the price-control law, by which he can restrain crop prices. Among other ways, Mr. Wickard's department owns great quantities of wheat, cotton and other farm crops. These were acquired by the Department of Agriculture during some eight years past-as part of the department's effort, at the same time, to make prices go higher. These stocks on hand, Mr. Wickard can now put on th market and thus restrain prices. And he has still other ways of restraining prices. When Mr. Wickard and Mr. Henderson announced they would keep crop prices at the present level, this offended farm leaders in Congress. Farm leaders held that the action was a violation of the spirit of the price-control law. The farm leaders propose now to make the standard in the price-control law a requirement-meaning, to wish to require Mr. Wickard and Mr. Henderson to permit crop prices to go up to 110 per cent of parity before they exercise any restraint. Success of the effort to elevate the standard of crop prices would justify the demand of labor leaders for wage increases. Conversely, an increase in wage rates would justify an increase in crop prices. And it is not these two alone that would be affected. Wages and crop prices are large factors in the prices of manufactured goods. They are the largest factors in the price level as a whole. The prices of practically everything would start upward. The present situation is specially important for its effect on the psychology of the country. If the country sees the price level move upward within a week or two after enactment of a price-control law, the public is likely to think the law will not work. The public is likely to begin to buy in anticipation of future high prices. That would be one of the classic early steps in inflation. On the other hand, if the present attempts to increase wages and crop prices are prevented, then the public is likely to think the Administration is really determined to prevent higher prices. The public is likely to think the price-control law will work. Such a public psychology would be a powerful factor in preventing price rises, preventing ultimate inflation. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)