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.

Open Season Again

Hand shaking, cigar smoking, back slapping time is here again. Yep, step right up, ladies and gentlemen, for another performance of the greatest show on earth. All of which is to say that it's open season on politicians again, as the candidates get down to campaigning in earnest for the May primaries. The voter will be subjected to a lot of speechmaking, ear bending and vote soliciting in the weeks to come. He will be deluged with campaign literature and radio announcements. He will be subjected to billboards, banners and campaign workers. From all this hullabaloo he must make his big decisions, separate the wheat from the chaff, and vote for the men and women he feels will make the best public officials. It's one whale of a job for John Q. Public, but one that must be done correctly. This country needs good leadership, not only in national circles, but in the state and county positions as well. The voter has a grave responsibility this year—one that will require a lot of thought and deliberation.

Things to Come

Don't be surprised to see Building Inspector Jimmie Robinson and Health Officer Paul Brick making their rounds on bicycles in the near future. That's what's in store for a good many city employees should the gasoline and tire rationing become more stringent. Instead of following the usual custom of selling unclaimed bicycles at public auction, City Manager George Shaw is toying with the idea of fixing them up for use by city workers. He's arranging that now, the City Manager shows that he's looking into the future and considering every angle. A year ago such an idea would have sounded silly—now it's good, common sense. * * * We wouldn't be too surprised if we looked out the window some day and saw the fire truck rushing by, drawn by two thundering, white steeds. When that day comes, maybe we'll even get back to a little close harmony in the barber shops and serenading the gals with the old mandolin.

Dig Cheerfully

But we've had to give to so many things this year." That is the expression that is current around town as the Community Chest Drive gets under way, seeking $279,500 to aid 22 welfare agencies in Dade County for the next 12 months. Of course we've given more this year. We've had to. We have a war on our hands. We've helped the Red Cross, bought poppies and Defense Bonds, donated to the U. S. O. and a thousand and one other things. We've done it gladly, knowing that it must be done. But let's not forget that charity begins at home and that our local welfare problems continue to exist, war or no war. So when you're asked to dig again for the Community Chest, give cheerfully. It's a very worthy cause and the work must becarried on.

Move Over, Boys

The pot-bellied war profiteers of the last World War moved over to make room for more customers this week, when news of the Miami Beach hotelmen hiking prices on the Army reached Satan's fiery pits. The action of those few selfish men has not only revolted the people of this area, but this shameful news has caused tongues to wag all over the nation. The damage done to the Miami area can never be actually counted in dollars and cents, but it will be felt for a long time to come. And even though no legal action can be taken against the profiteering hotel operators, they will live to rue the day they tried to hold up Uncle Sam. We, in Coral Gables, do not attempt to apologize for the Beachites. The community across the bay is entirely different from ours. All we can say is that the Army, Navy or Marines will never find that kind of treatment when they come to our community. And as for the hotelmen, all we can say is that they must cringe with shame every time they read the successes recently named for General Douglas MacArthur.

WALTER LIPPMANN

(Continued From Page 1) writers to prepare speeches for high officials to deliver. No one is concerned about the men who prepare information from government departments in a convenient form for publication. The real question arises only when they prepare important addresses in which the people are supposed to hear directly from a responsible leader what he thinks and why he does what he does. Therefore, to be specific and quite frank, because the leadership of the President himself is involved, let us consider the extraordinary and to my old-fashioned mind, the nauseating thing that now happens when the announcement is made that the President will deliver an important address. The papers report that a number of professional writers, men not responsible for shaping or carrying out the policies he will discuss, are gathering at the White House to write the words which Mr. Roosevelt will utter. It will be said that all Presidents, and indeed all public men, are assisted by others in preparing their addresses. That is true. And it is entirely necessary and proper. But there is this great difference between the new procedure at the White House and that which was employed by Mr. Roosevelt himself in the earlier days, in the days of the brains trust. Whatever one may think of the brains trust, they were a group of men actively and continually at work in the shaping of policy. They were not a group of ghost writers lacking first-hand knowledge of and personal responsibility for, the things they helped the President put into words. And that, I am profoundly convinced, is a principal reason why the earlier speeches of the President were free style—and had the great effect—he having then—what in recent times they have lacked—the feeling of action rather than of literary comment and special pleading. The address of a President should be an event and not a lecture or a public reading, and the decision about when he should speak and what needs saying can be wisely made, not by figures of experts on public opinion, but only by men participating in the action he is going to talk about. There is all the difference in the world between being assisted by his official family and being assisted by ghost writers. The artists who now help the President with his speeches ought to be the first to understand this, that authentic words are not like a coat of paint sprayed on a building that someone else has built. "The voice is the man himself." The flaw of the President's recent speeches has been the style of men brought in from the outside who know only by hearsay, not by their own acts, what the government is doing. It does not require training as a literary critic for people to feel this and to be put off by it. There is in most men, as lovers in children, an instinctive sense of the real and the phoney when they are spoken to. The vice of the new publicity expert and ghost-writer system in public life is that it pretends to create a synthetic public man in front of the actual public man. And since the public is increasingly aware of this system and of how it operates, the system destroys the bonds of confidence between leaders and the people. The actual man is no longer face to face with the people. He wears a disguise which has been contrived for him. This masquerade will not work in serious times among a free people, who are furious, impassive and quickly repelled if they feel they are being fooled. A public man can and needs to be supplied with material and advice and criticism in preparing an important address. But no one can write an authentic speech for another man; it is as impossible as writing his love letters for him. When he speaks in the pulpit, he and not someone else must speak. For it is much more important that he could be genuine, and it is infinitely more persuasive, than that he be bright, agile, ingenious, clever-in-an-allusion or even grammatical. It is, moreover a delusion fostered into an inferiority complex among executive by professional writers, that in an age of specialists some are called to act and some are called to find the right words for men of action to use. The truth is that anyone who knows what he is doing can say what he is doing, and anyone who knows what he thinks can say what he thinks. Those who cannot speak for themselves are with very rare exceptions, not very sure of what they are doing and of what they mean. The sooner they are found out the better. The current pedantry spread into the air between the public relations experts inevitably give their clients bad advice about public relations. Believing that words can sell ideas being themselves separated from the lifeblood of action, they usually miss the essential point about effective public utterance. It is that in public affairs words are effective only as they are part of an action. The whole effect of words is lost, and the value of public speech debased if nothing happens, except an analysis of the fan mail, when the public man speaks. Thus, for example, the President's speech of last May would have been a highly effective speech if when he concluded by declaring an unlimited national emergency, he had then put into effect the measures of an unlimited emergency. But because he used the superlative words, and then no momentous action followed, he was very badly advised to use the big words. For after the effect was that the big, exciting words were a mere literary fancy, the product of ghost writers, and the speech went flat like a pricked balloon. This critical point—that in a public words must not be words but must be married to his acts—might be well considered by Mr. Donald Nelson. He is delivering a large number of public speeches which if he writes them himself, must take a lot of his time. They are good speeches in their spirit and their purpose. But I venture to suggest that Mr. Nelson will be far more effective if he does not divorce his speeches from his acts—if, that is to say, he does not make speeches which are just speeches and does not issue his orders without speaking about them. The effective time for him to speak is when he is acting, so that whenever he says something the public will know that something is going to happen, so that whenever he acts—say to deprive the people of something—they will hear directly from him why he has acted. Is that not what any sensible man does in private life? It will work just as well in public life. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)

The Modern Tortoise Is Different By BROWN

This ONE'S on You

BRITISH INFLUENCE—The coming of the R. A. F. cadets has increased the popularity of the honored English game of darts. One American, however, must have gotten over enthusiastic about the game. When we walked in the post office early the other morning, we found all the pens sticking in the door, with all indications that they had been used as implements of the game. * * * TONGUE SLIP—It may have been a slip of the tongue, but, nevertheless, he said it. A minister was in the office the other day ordering some printing. As he was leaving, he turned and said, "When the job's done, my BITTER HALF will be in to pick it up." * * * DUBIOUS TALENT—The house mother at the Delta Zeta sorority has an ear for music, we understand. At any rate, from the tinkling sounds, she is able to inform the girls when the people next door are shaking up cocktails, one of the members tells us. * * * THRILLS AHEAD—R. A. F. Cadet George Mackay, who wrote the article on air raids for last week's paper, is on his way back home to liquidate a few Nazis. But that's not the greatest thrill in store for the navigator. Upon his arrival he will meet his son, whom he has never seen. The baby was born while George was studying here in Coral Gables.

OUR TOWN By Jim Moore

Our brother Jack, we believe, is a typical high school sophomore. He can sing, jitterbug and knows all the current slang expressions, such as "What's buzzin', cousin?" For the first time in his life he has started to take an active interest in clothes and keeping his hair slicked down. Photographs of girls are starting to replace the pennants that used to adorn his walls. He knows all the current popular song hits and can even get in a few "hot licks" on a harmonica. We remember, back when we were in high school, national affairs were farthest from our minds. The swirl of a skirt and the flash of a pretty leg was far more important that what Congress was doing at the moment, or how our relations with foreign countries were faring. Of course, we weren't at war then, JIM MOORE and if we were, maybe we would have thought a bit more soberly. Nevertheless, we got to thinking the other day about how the war was affecting boys of Jack's age. Then somebody told us about a bit of verse that Jack had written recently, and asked if we would like to see it. Thinking that it was something along the frivolous line, about girls and stuff, we started in to read. When we were through our question about high school thinking was answered. So that you, who also have an interest in boys and girls of that age, may know the answer, we are printing Jack's poem: WE'RE MAD! For many years, around the earth, They pictured, one and all, America, a land of mirth Where troubles all are small. And so perhaps, the little Japs Made up their minds one day To set for us some furtive traps To steal our mirth away. They sent soft-speaking little men "To talk of peace," they said, And we know now, but didn't then, That peace with them was dead. While posing with their pleasing poise, They stabbed us, in the dark; And left on hundreds of our boys, Their bloody pagan mark. But now, they've made us mad clear through! A fight is what they'll get; Though yellow-skinned, they'll all be blue When their rising sun has set. We'll buy the Bonds to buy the tools To fight until it's through; An then we will have to show those fools That we are fighters, too! That's what young America is really thinking about today. Of course, they jitterbug and shag and toss the slang around. But deep within is the conviction that should be burning in all of us; that we've got a big job to do, and that it will be done. This week's issue of the Ponce Tribune, high school student publication, listed the names of 50 former students now serving in the armed services. Some of them were high school students last year. Now they are men with guns and a conviction. We've little to worry about the youth of today and its part in the war effort. Fact is, we could well emulate those youngsters. They are not letting petty personal problems stand between them and their duty as citizens. But a lot of us are!

Mark Sullivan

In the House, this week, once more in a long series, a movement has arisen to pass legislation dealing with labor unions. The movement is strong—it is clear that a large majority of the House is deeply stirred about the need. It is equally clear that the feeling of the House reflects a corresponding feeling in the country. The House knows the country's mood. It has to. All the members of the House (except the few who expect to retire voluntarily) are about to come before their constituents for re-nomination some within two or three weeks, all within a few months. The House feels that the country wants legislation. The House itself wants it—the House has already passed or furthered similar legislation three times, each time by a majority of approximately 2 to 1. The House wants the legislation now proposed. But will this legislation become law? Will we get a law dealing with labor unions and labor leaders? To this question, there is an answer. It is to be found in the story of the last similar legislation which the House passed last December. Let us briefly review the history of it, including its ultimate fate. Concern Last Fall Recalled During late fall of last year there was deep concern in Congress and throughout the country about strikes that were delaying defense work. Thoughtful persons were seriously apprehensive whether we could prepare for war, adequately enough and soon enough, unless a legislative curb were put upon strikes in war industry. In this mood the House, December 31, passed legislation dealing with strikes in defense industry and with labor unions generally. The majority was overwhelming, almost exactly 2 to 1—literally 252 to 136. A majority of the Democrats voted for it—129 to 108. This in spite of the fact that the House leader, Mr. McCormack, of Massachusetts, voted against the bill spoke against it, and asked all the Democrats to vote against it. The bill, with this immense House backing, went to the Senate. There is good reason to judge that the Senate was of a mood to pass the bill, probably with modifications of an ordinary sort, as readily as the House. That is—if the bill came before the Senate. But the bill has never come before the Senate. When the bill came over from the House it went, in the usual course, to the appropriate committee, the Senate Committee on Labor and Education. This and all committees which have initial custody of legislation has much power, properly so. It is their prerogative and duty to hold hearings, if they deem wise; to make changes in the form of a bill, to report on bills favorably or unfavorably. The chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Education is Mr. Elmer Thomas of Utah. Mr. Thomas is commonly regarded as a sincere 100 per cent New Dealer, disposed to do whatever the New Deal administration wants, reluctant to further any legislation that curtails the privileges of labor unions. This bent was imputed to Mr. Thomas in the Senate debate in connection with the present bill. Under pressure from advocates of the bill Mr. Thomas, on December 8, said that his committee would report the bill to the Senate floor by the following week. Before the following week arrived, there appeared before Senator Thomas's committee several members of the Administration, including Labor Administrator and C. I. O. Leader Sidney Hillman and Secretary of Labor Perkins. They asked Mr. Thomas's committee to suspend action on the pending bill. They said the President had in mind a step of his own to deal with the labor situation. They request the Senate Committee granted. Action on the bill was suspended—and remains suspended to this day. Roosevelt's Solution The President took his proposed step. Using his broad war power he set up a war labor board made up of members appointed by him, not subject to confirmation by the Senate, responsible to him. At the same time, the President set up an informal personal system by which he meets, semi-occasionally, the heads of the two great labor organizations, Mr. Murray of C. I. O. and Mr. Green of A. F. of L. Mr. Roosevelt at a press conference, described the spirit of these meetings as the kind at which those present take down their hair and call each other by their first names. Here the matter of labor unions and war industry remains. From Mr. Roosevelt's course on this occasion and before, it is tenable to infer that he wishes to keep labor relations within his own hands, and the hands of subordinates responsible to him; that he wishes to avoid action by Congress. This inference is supported by the evidence of what Mr. Roosevelt did in connection with the bill here described. In addition to the recent instance, on other occasions during the last three years, a clear disposition on the part of Congress to pass labor legislation has been frustrated. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)

Book Briefs

"THE SOONG SISTERS" (Doubleday Doran). By Emily Hahn. Reviewed by Louise Leyden "The Soong Sisters" is a comparatively recent book about China's three most prominent women of today, namely—Eling (Madame Kung), Chingling (Madame Sun), and Mayling (Madame Chiang). It begins with the life of their father, Charlie Soong, or Charlie Soon, as he was known later, and follows their various activities down to the present. Little did Charlie Soong realize when he called away from China at an early age to study trade under his Boston uncle's guidance, that it marked the beginning of a new era for his native land. Finding a dislike of a life of trade and yearning for the kind of education the sons of wealthier Chinese families were receiving in America, he promptly ran away, boarded a coastwise steamer, landing eventually in North Carolina and in the hands of a group of Southern Methodists. Charlie Soong, a bright pupil, easily adopted Occidental culture and the Christian religion. He returned to China determined to spread his Christian doctrine and to infuse into the Manchu-dominated country the things he had learned in America. His three daughters subsequently walked in his footsteps, coming to America for their education and later returning to China to carry out the principles they, too, had learned. Each worked for the cause nearest to her heart and each married a close friend of her father. The book deals primarily with the activities of the sisters today in their war-torn land. Charlie Soong is gone, and gone is Sun Yat-sen. But the principles for which they worked are vibrant and alive—China's three most important women are determined that they shall continue so. The author of this interesting book spent much time and effort in authenticating her stories and anecdotes. It is a splendid tribute to the brilliancy of intellect and the devotion to duty that characterize the daughters of Charlie Soong. This is a most fascinating book and is well worth the time it takes to read it.