Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, March 13, 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
PAGE 6 THE CORAL GABLES RIVIERA -FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 1942- 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 General 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.
Loose and Loud
"Don't say anything you don't WANT to be true!" We're not seeking to take credit for this statement—it was uttered by William B. Burrus of New York, who spends his winters in Coral Gables. The statement is one which should be applied by every loyal, thinking American to every utterance he or she feels inclined to put into words. When we give evidence, through loose talk, that we are disunited as a nation, that we quarrel with the actions of our elected officials, that we disagree with officers we have placed at the head of our Army and Navy, we are exacting a greater toll on our ferver to win this war than could be inflicted on the battlefield by the Japs or Nazis. Let's remember this: "Don't say anything you don't WANT to be true!"
Training Ground
It begins to look like Miami and Dade County has come to regard Coral Gables as a breeding ground for good officials. First it was City Manager A. B. Curry who was taken from our midst to straighten out the affairs of the City of Miami. Now, City Commissioner Andrew Healey is leaving to slit the office of assistant county solicitor. Perhaps it all started back when Edmund Friedman, a former Gables City Manager, took over the office of county engineer, which he has held successfully ever since. At any rate, it's a tribute to the people of Coral Gables that the officers they select to guide the community are regarded so highly in other circles. Nevertheless, losing them fills us with regret. Friedman has proven his capabilities as county engineer. Curry's handling of the Miami situation has the taxpayers on their feet cheering lustily. We are certain that Commissioner Healey has the ability to make an equally successful record in the county solicitor's office. As he leaves the Gables official family, he has the good wishes of The Riviera and the citizenry. Our only regret is that he has been able to serve us for but a short time.
What Would You Do?
What would you do, if you were awakened tonight by a roar in your roof, the acrid smell of smoke and the terrifying sight of flames belching from the living room? It could very well be possible if the enemy decides upon a morale breaking plan of dropping several thousand incendiary bombs up and down the eastern seaboard. Get this picture! One enemy bomber can carry 2,000 of the compact, intensly burning fire bombs. Statistics coming from London show that out of every 2,000 dropped, 75 house fires are started. So figure your chances should several waves of Hun planes suddenly sweep in from the ocean and start unloading. Would you know what to do? Could you effectively and efficiently cope with the blazing inferno that has dropped so suddenly into your home? Have you the necessary implements on hand to fight the destroying fire bomb? Chances are, despite reams of publicity, that only one out of every 50 Gableites are prepared and know what to do. That is why it is so vitally important for every man and woman, resident and visitor to witness one of the next free showings of "Fighting the Fire Bomb" next Monday and Tuesday. Sponsored by the city of Coral Gables, the picture will be shown twice on Monday, 7:30 and 8:15 at the auditorium of the University of Miami and at the same time on Tuesday evening in the Elementary School auditorium. The picture takes just a little over a half an hour to see, but in that brief span you gain knowledge that may save your home. Surely, that amount of time at an occasional picture is worth the difference between an intact home and a pile of smouldering ruins. Realistically filmed, the picture shows the fighting of fire bombs under the conditions which you will meet in your own home. It shows you the fire fighting implements to have on hand when the bombs fall. It shows you exactly what to do for every situation. Don't shrug and say, "This doesn't concern me". Don't kid yourself that the possibility of an enemy bombing of the Miami area is remote. That line of thinking is right up the Axis alley. Tomorrow night you may be called upon to fight the incendiary bomb in YOUR OWN HOME!!
WALTER LIPPMANN
(Continued from Page 1) of the general principles of the art of production, taken that weapon apart, had sliced it up into hundreds of little bits, until each little bit could be made quickly by men and women who had a few week's training and yet had planned the whole operation so that the little bits were coming together again at the right place and at the right time. "Would you mind telling me," I said, "how you can do all this when a year ago we were being told it couldn't be done?" "Sure," he replied, "that's easy. You saw all the machinery out there in the snow. Well, now I just haven't anything else to think about except this war job." There in a nutshell, I submit, is the answer to all our problems: the vested interest problems of business men, the labor problems, the farm bloc problems, the bureaucratic problems, the partisan politics problem, the prima donna problem, and, being a newspaperman myself, I must not omit the newspaperman problem. All these problems are in essence the same problem: that of pushing the old peace-time machinery of our interests out of doors and leaving it there for the duration of the war. Until that is done, none of us will really think of nothing else but his war job. None of us will be fit to shine shoes, much less to look into the eyes, of the fighting men. None of us will have found the peace of mind which men can come only to those who know what it means to draw the sword and throw away the scabbard. And there is, I submit, a very sure and yet a simple test by which we can know whether we mean what we say, or are merely deluding ourselves. It is whether, as we wake up and come to our senses and at long last realize what this struggle means, we look first to our own failings or first to the failings of others. For in so far as we first blame some one else for what is not going well, it is certain that we are still unawake ourselves, still unready to play our part as responsible men, still looking for scapegoats to blame and for sacrificial lambs to pass on, still hoping somehow to pass unscathed and unregenerate through the fires. In this, then, all of us who take part in public life today have a very deep obligation to be very sure that when we behold the mote in our brother's eye, we consider no less frankly the beam in our own. The test of our public discussion today is that insuch large degree men continue to adjust their attitude to the problems of the war in the pattern of their commitments before the war. For the effect is not to organize and persuade but to repel the old differences with the passions of war. It does no good, and almost surely a great deal of harm, when those who have never been much concerned about the farmer are full of righteous indignation against the farm bloc, when those who were never impressed with the productiveness of industry are full of righteous indignation about the business men who withhold industrial capacity, when those who pass lightly over the obstruction by vested interests in business dwell only on the obstructiveness of the labor unions, when those who never saw any good in the New Dealers can seen no faults worth mentioning in the Republicans, when those who cannot find a useful past for a powerful figure like Willkie are annoyed when anybody suggests that incompetent office-holders should be promptly removed. All of this is just the pre-war mental machinery cluttering up the minds of men who should be thinking of the war. The hallmark of the fanatic is that in a time when it is supremely necessary that all should seek to see life steadily and see it whole, he many remain the advocates of their faction, their corporate group, their party, their bureau, their career. Thus it is undoubtedly true that the essential trouble in labor affairs is that the labor leaders are in competition with one another, each afraid to take the full national view for fear of being out-maneuvered by a rival labor politician; that Mr. Murray, for example, is not really leading labor for the nation's interest for fear that Mr. John L. Lewis will destroy him and that Mr. Green does not really lead for fear that he will lose his hold upon his followers as the result of an attack from some competitor. It is true that the same vicious mechanism is at work among the farm bloc politicians, that the reason they do what they do is not because the farmers are unmindful of the danger; these politicians—are afraid of other politicians who will agitate the farmers until they do demand it. But it is no less true that the reason why industry was so slow in enlisting for the war and the reason why today,—though great progress has been made, there is still no complete pooling of resources—is that the separate corporations are thinking of their competitors and are seeking to keep as intact as possible for the post-war period their normal business organizations. What is true of labor, industry and organized agriculture is also true of the government itself—of Congress, of the departments and of the bureaus. There is little evidence, for example, that all the members of Congress have begun to grasp the fact that in the face of the enemy it is unpardonable to waste irreplaceable energy, in ill-informed speeches, and dangerous mischief to harass with trifles the President and his heavily laden administrators. Nor is there sufficient evidence to quiet one's apprehension that the bureaucracies, say in the Navy Department and the State Department, have really gone to war in the sense that they are prepared to open the way to the stronger and fresher men who wait outside. Yet until all these pre-war patterns are broken down and scrapped, or at least pushed out of doors for the duration, there will be no deep unity among the people and their vital energies, now aroused to the bursting point, will be throttled down disastrously and dangerously. Indeed, this purge of the separated interests of each of us is the inward condition of an irresistible and triumphant offensive against our enemies. Only a dedicated nation can move forward; otherwise it will fight on the defensive against its enemies because at home each man is still fighting to defend his private position. The dedication of MacArthur's men is the secret of the mystery at Bataan: his men are fighting for their country's cause, not for their bank accounts, a new automobile, their post-war business, or seniority in a government bureau. They have staked everything and, having nothing to lose, they now have a world to win. They walk by faith, not by sight And so must we walk, knowing that we must be better men than we ever dreamed of being, putting a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)
OUR TOWN
by Jim Moore We were taken aback the other day when we heard a high official in the Defense Council characterize Coral Gables as being "the least prepared city in Dade County for an air raid". The official was speaking in a room filled with about 60 local residents, and we expected to see them rise in a body and drown the statement in a bloody libel—but they did not. And there were several reasons why. In the first place, Jim Hoffman (that's the official's name) had made another very challenging statement. He said that if he could collect a dollar from every man in the room who did not have his home fully prepared for an air raid, he would gladly pay $5.00 to every man who did, and he would still make a profit. That statement also went unchallenged because out of the 60 men who sat in that room, there were only FOUR who had fully prepared. Now we thought we had our house pretty well set up for such an emergency. We had a vague idea about putting the rugs over the windows of one room, keeping a supply of cigarettes there and arranging to darken the hall leading from the room to the bathroom where a water supply would be on tap. We had a garden hose out in the yard to use on fire bombs, and we were all set to 'let 'em come. We know differently now, after we found ourselves unable to answer a few of Jim Hoffman's questions. How long would it take us to black-out our room by the rug method? We figured from five to ten minutes—just enough time to allow an enemy bomber to get a line on our town? How would we extinguish an incendiary bomb? We answered that we would use the a fine spray from our garden hose (We learned that from seeing the picture on Fire Bombs). We found out that if the water main was bombed or fire apparatus was drawing too heavily on the supply, our hose would be useless. We hadn't even thought of filling the bath tub to provide an emergency supply. Yet, just a few blocks from our house, at the fire department, there is a big pile of sand, free for the asking. We realized also that we had no extra buckets, no patent extinguishers, no shovel or no ladder to quickly reach the roof, if a fire bomb landed there. Another one of our smug feelings was blasted when we were told that a fire bomb will come right through a slanting roof—with hardly a pause. We had taken it for granted, that the heavy tile, plus the pitch, would deflect the small incendiaries. If the old saying that misery loves company is true, we had plenty to love. Nearly every man in the room found himself in practically the same fix we were in. Yet all of them had walked into the meeting with the complacent feeling that they had done what little was necessary—and anyways their home wouldn't be hit. There was just a handful of men in the room who knew the name of their block air raid wardens. Fewer still were enrolled in any of the many defense classes now available to all citizens. They hadn't realized that no one in their homes would know what to do if one of the children was injured badly. Looking at the other side of the ledger for a moment, we fond that many of our citizens are doing a whole lot on this defense proposition. An auxiliary police force has been organized and equiped. Air raid warning devices are rapidly nearing completion and will be installed very shortly. Most of the precinct wardens have organized their districts and appointed block wardens. Many men and women are taking courses. The ladies are doing Red Cross work, helping at the filter center and doing other useful things. This is splendid. Those who are doing this work are helping more than they will ever realize. The trouble is this. This war is not the job of a few persons. It is not the job of a majority. It is the job of every man, woman and child in the United States. Until that state is achieved—we are NOT going to ring the bells of Victory. Everyone of us must first take the necessary precautions to protect our homes. We must acquire the equipment necessary to this protection. Then both the men and women in the household must learn how to fight fire bombs; how to give first aid to the injured. No one knows when the first air raid will come. Certainly we hope that it never will. But we must prepare as if we knew for sure that we would be bombed tomorrow. Mrs. Jones must know as much about it as Mrs. Jones, who might be away from home when the enemy came. Many men will be called on for additional duties that will take them away from their families in the midst of the raid. It will be up to the women and children to carry on and protect their dwellings. We must all take these courses and attend the free motion picture "Fighting the Fire Bomb". Everyone of use must become capable of handling almost any emergency. The war isn't thousands of miles away in the jungles of Java and on the far reaches of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It's right here on our front door steps, and we must never forget it.
This ONE'S ON You
MEET DE CHAMP—A title, held for many months by the British, was brought back to the States this week with Navigation Cadet James McGarry, U. S. Army Air Corps as the new champion. McGarry, before cheering witnesses in the Huddle, downed a 46-ounce stein of beer in the breath-taking time of six seconds! The best the British cadet, who held the title before, could claim was 11 seconds. Testimony of the new record, signed by witnesses, is now displayed on the back bar, for all to see and marvel. COMEBACK—There was a tense stillness on the 9th tee of the Miami Biltmore course Sunday as Ben Hogan prepared to smack one down the fairway. The gallery seemed to be holding its breath as the pro reached the peak of his back swing. Then, hurtling from the direction of the pool, came the booming voice of Showman Alexander Ott, "Pree-c-e-esentinnnng the world's best divers in a se-e-e-eries of fancy dives!!!!!" Hogan paused—listened. Then turning in the direction of the pool, he filled his lungs and in a bellow that nearly matched the redoubtable Ott's, shouted, "Fo-o-o-o-ore!!"
WHAT WILL You Do When the Fire Bombs FALL?
Every Man and Woman in Coral Gables Should See the Sound Motion Picture "FIGHTING THE FIRE BOMB" Four FREE Showings University of Miami Auditorium Monday, March 16 - - - 7:30 & 8:15 P. M. Coral Gables Elementary School Auditorium Tuesday, March 17 - - - 7:30 & 8:15 P. M. SPONSORED BY THE CITY OF CORAL GABLES Approved by the OFFICE OF CIVILIAN DEFENSE