Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, May 8, 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, 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 Charles E. Larson Advertising Manager Gertrude Hardeman Circulation Manager Helen Reynolds Society Editor Edythe Farley Credit Manager Mailing Address, P. O. Box 704 Telephone 4-1634 Member, Florida Press Association Member, 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.
Suitable Monument
Of all the suggestions that have come forth concerning a George E. Merrick memorial, we think that the most appropriate has been advanced by Dr. Louis K. Manley of the University of Miami. Dr. Manley tells us that the body of Sir Christopher Wrenn, famous designer of churches, lies in St. Paul's in London, one of his most beautiful creations. Marking his resting place is a simple plaque, with these words inscribed on it: "If you would see my monument-look around you." What could be more appropriate for the man who created this city beautiful than a simple marker, with a similar inscription? Now that the new directors of the Chamber of Commerce have been elected, it seems that some immediate action should be taken on the Merrick memorial. It should not be necessary to again call it to the attention of that organization. We don't believe it will be.
Willing Rationing
Coral Gables housewives stood in line this week and got rationing cards, controlling the amount of sugar they could buy weekly during the war. Registrars, issuing the cards, stated that the women took the whole process good-naturedly, with a minimum of grumbling and a maximum of honesty concerning the amount of sugar they had on hand. Most of the Gables ladies said that the rationing was ample and would work little or no hardship on their families. But even those with a sweet tooth went into the rationing gladly and willingly-just another bit Coral Gables can do to help Axe the Axis.
To the Victors
To the candidates victorious in the first primary-congratulations. By voting you into office, the people of Dade County have expressed their confidence in you-asked you to lead and represent them during this trying period. This country is in need of able leaders-men with courage and foresight to see us through the troubled waters. In you has been placed a great trust-on your shoulders a great burden of responsibility. We know you will not fail us.
The Bond Issue
The freeholders of Special School Tax District Five have seen fit to reject the proposed $850,000 bond issue for school improvements. It means many needed repairs and additions in the district must be postponed. However, this is a democracy and we must be willing to abide by the decision of the majority. Perhaps, with a war, mounting costs of living and increased taxes, it was an inopportune time to present such an issue. The trustees, however, felt that the bonds should be approved at this time and sold later when materials were available. The rejection of this issue at the present time must not mean that the improvement plans be abandoned. We feel that the freeholders of District 5 realize that they are necessary but do not agree that this is the proper time to approve them. The issue should be tabled temporarily, but not forgotten.
Where Are the Boys?
Where is the boy from the grocery store Who brought us the things we were waiting for, And livened us with his ready smile? We haven't seen him for quite awhile. Where is the lad who delivered the mail? In fair or foul weather he'd never fail, And along with our mail he brought good cheer, But for some time now he has not been here. And where is the youth who mowed the lawn, Picture of health in his suntanned brawn? We miss his whistle and his merry song- Since we heard him last seems oh, so long. The boy who delivered our groceries Is somewhere over the troubled seas; The lad who brought us our daily mail, He, too, has for unknown parts set sail; And the youth who performed our outdoor chores Already has landed on foreign shores. Their country called and they heeded the call, Like thousands of others-God bless them all. J. L. BEERS.
WALTER LIPPMANN
(Continued from Page 1) anese ally. The problem, which he sought to solve in his speech, was how to convey his suggestion to the British without making it too plain to the Japanese that he would, if he could, turn against them. There are, I believe, compelling reasons for thinking that what Hitler would like to do, is furious and frustrated because he cannot, is to extricate himself from the present war by transforming it into a struggle between "Europe" and "Asia." He tried and failed last year to win over Europe, and Britain, and America to the idea that he was the champion of a crusade against Bolshevism. Now, he would like to try again and make himself the champion of the western white men against the east, which, in his mind, includes Russia. That is the great daydream of Hitler, which must have kept him bemused in the long, dark, cold Russian winter. Such a transformation of the war would suit him strategically and ideologically. If he who has such gifts of persuasion could only persuade the British to replace Mr. Churchill by a Laval, or even by a Colonel Blimp, he would have his hands free against Russia. The British power in Europe is a tremendous thing, as he realizes very well. If Britain cannot be knocked out of the war, as he hoped to do in 1940, why can he not in his dreams, where all things are possible, find some way to seduce the British out of the war? If he could succeed, he would also cut America out of the war against Nazi Germany, resistance on the Continent would collapse, and discontent in Germany would subside. It would be the perfect strategical solution for him, the magical fulfillment of the most thorough bit of wishful thinking that he could indulge in. Ideologically this transformation of the war would be a complete answer to a Nazi prayer. If in alliance with Britain he could call off the western European war, he would become what he has always dreamed of being, the champion of western civilization against Bolshevism and "the *yellow peril." His propagandists in the United States have been hinting at this solution ever since Pearl Harbor. Hitler knows very well that his 1939 pact with Stalin made his anti-Bolshevism look preposterous, and that his present alliance with Japan makes his racial theories look even more preposterous. If he could persuade the British that in alliance with him they could have back Hongkong, Malaya, Burma, and could be sure of India, he would feel once more like the old Hitler. It is evident that in formulating his peace offense against Britain out there in the solitude of the Russian winter he has got hold of a halftruth. It is quite true that "not against Europe can the British structure be preserved in the long run, but with Europe." But what he did not see, because it ruins fatally his wishful thinking, is that the British know that what they have lost in the Far East has been lost solely because Hitler planned, and organized, and launched his war in Europe. If the British had not resisted him successfully in Europe, he would have destroyed not only the empire and the commonwealth, but he would have destroyed also British independence as he has destroyed the French; because the British resisted him, they had to leave the Eastern empire weakly defended. The British know perfectly well that Japan conquered Singapore only because virtually their whole power, and most of the American power, was against Hitler. They know, as Americans know, that while Hitler (or Europe, as he likes to call himself) has made possible the Japanese successes, he has nothing to contribute to the defeat of Japan. His armies could not be used against Japan; his navy is not needed; we shall have a far greater air force by the time we are ready to strike the decisive blow Japan. Moreover, he is quite mistaken when he indulges his wish to believe that Britain today is "against Europe." Never in the history of the Continent has Britain been closer to the nations of Europe. For Britain has already given them the most precious of all gifts-Britain has given them the chance of resurrection. In the eyes of Europe, therefore, the British people are the heroic defenders of the freedom of every European man, woman and child. They have earned imperishable glory as the nation which saved Europe and the world from the triumph of Nazism. Where would the Russians, for all their courage, be today if Churchill's Britain had not stood fast in 1940? Where would France be, or Poland, or Norway, or Belgium and the Netherlands? Where would we be, if we stood alone in a world where the free nations had fallen? The Britain to which Rudolph Hess addressed himself last year has ceased to exist in Britain. The Britain to which Hitler addressed himself on Sunday has ceased to exist since Singapore. The Russia whom he talks about has ceased to exist since he drove 130 legions into the flesh of the Russian people. The America which he still tries to manipulate ceased to exist as the meaning of the attack at Pearl Harbor has become clearer to Americans. Hitler's acts have defeated his dreams, and the world has passed him by. He cannot unite Europe because he has subjected Europe to cruelties which he can never expiate. He cannot arouse the western world against Russia, because he has taught the western world that the survival of a strong Russia is necessary in Europe and in Asia. He cannot arouse the white man against the Asiatic people because the white man has learned in the hard school of unforgettable experience that the hope of security and stability in the East rests upon the survival of a free, strong China. He cannot divide the English-speaking nations one from the other because he has taught them, more vividly than years of their own discussions and arguments, that united they stand and divided they fall. Hitler, it is now evident, is growing old prematurely, perhaps because, as he tells us, he has not had three days' vacation in nine years. The sure signs of age are upon him; he would like to fight all over again and by the same devices the battles which he once fought so successfully. In his meditations in Russia this winter he has invented a policy which is an attempt to make work in 1942 the ideas which he remembers from 1939 and 1940. This is how in his own furious way a Hitler becomes his own Colonel Blimp. The same thing happened to Napoleon after his winter in Russia as any one can see for himself by reading General de Caulaincourt's memoirs. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)
Some Of His Own Medicine By BROWN
JAPAN REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR BRAND TOKYO BROWN
Mark Sullivan
To grasp President Roosevelt's message and the whole program now under way, start with the bonds. In truth, war bonds are the heart and the key of the whole matter-that is, the relation between war bonds and cost of living. Between war bonds and cost of living there is today a certain relation. To preserve that relation, roughly, for the indefinite future-that is the general purpose of the immense effort now being organized. The relation between war bonds and cost of living everybody can see. A war bond of low denomination costs $18.75. Such a bond today is equal, to speaking roughly, three pairs of shoes, or two $9 dresses, or some forty to fifty pounds of butter. It if about one-third the cost of a plow or one-fiftieth the cost of a tractor. And the purpose of what we are attempting to preserve, roughly, that relation-to see to it that a war bond a year from now, or two years or ten, will be worth roughly the same. To see to it that if, in the future, a war bond is turned into cash, the money will buy roughly what it will buy today. How to accomplish this? That is what the President sets out to answer in his message and in the program of action now started. The way is obvious: it is to keep goods at roughly the same prices; to keep each item about the same and the aggregate the same. As a start, President Roosevelt takes prices of food-that is, the prices of farm crops. Mr. Roosevelt says, specifically, that these are to be kept about the same. He does not say "the same"-the term he uses is "parity," which can have a variable meaning; but he clearly warns that prices of farm crops be kept roughly the same. To this end the President is direct and courageous. He asks Congress to make a slight change in the law, which will permit the Administration to keep prices of farm crops at the present level. With this level farmers in general are content-gro-vided, and only provided, prices of other goods are kept roughly the same; provided the price of what the farmer must buy remains the same. Next, the President takes up prices of goods in general, manufactured articles and the like. About these the Administration already has power and is exercising it. Price Administrator Leon Henderson nas authority to put, and is putting, a ceiling-that is, a maximum-on practically all articles in common use. The ceiling is to be, in general, about the present level. The next factor is wages. About this the President is less direct. He says the price of labor-that is, wages, should not be regulated by act of Congress as are the prices of crops and of goods generally. For this there is partial justification. But the President does say, clearly and specifically, that "wages in general can and should be kept at existing scales." For accomplishing this he proposes that if labor unions make demands for higher wages, and if such demands are cartied up to the War Labor Board for arbitration, the War Labor Board should rule against the demands (with some minor exceptions). In taking responsibility for wages, the Administration assumes, really, the responsibility for all. For if wages go up, then everything else will go up. If wages go up, prices of manufactured goods will go up; price of what the farmer buys will go up. Thereupon the farmer will demand and will have to get, higher prices for his crops. That would mean higher prices of food, higher cost of living. Higher cost of living would lead to demands for still higher wages-and the upward spiral of inflation would get under way with the sky the limit. Only the end would be not the sky but hell-economic and social hell. Who is interested in helping the President with his program? The answer is, everybody. Specifically and especially owners of war bonds are interested. And the owners of war bonds are, or going to be, the largest class in the country. It will be a larger class than labor, for it includes labor; a larger class than farmers, for it includes farmers. No interest of any one class is as great as the interest of all in avoiding inflation. To owners of war bonds add other groups, practically all of them overlapping-owners of all sorts of ordinary bonds, beneficiaries of life insurance policies, receivers of pensions from corporations, teachers and students in colleges whose endowments consist of bonds, employees and patients of endowed hospitals. All these have a common interest with owners of war bonds in preventing an inflation. Hardly any advantage that would come to any person or group through higher prices or higher wages would be as great as the disadvantage that would come to them by inflation. Further, for reasons too complex to set forth here, the act of buying war bonds is itself a preventive of inflation. For all, the answer is: buy bonds-and preserve their value by helping in the program to prevent rise in the cost of living. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)
This ONE'S ON You
LITTLE PITCHERS-The children of the second grade at the Coral Gables Elementary School were discussing messages and the talk had turned to radio. One little tot said that her mother listened to the "news messages" on the radio. Another told that her mother liked the "recipe messages." Finally a third pupil raised her hand. "My mother," she proudly stated, "always listens to the race scratches on her radio." * * * GET THEE BEHIND-If Satan really can assume any form, we feel inclined to believe that he was in church last Sunday disguised as a measuring worm. Satan or not, the worm completely succeeded in distracting two small boys and several horrified ladies throughout the service. One lad would allow the worm to walk up and down his arm several times and then the other youngster would demand his turn. This procedure kept up for a full hour, while the good ladies seated in the vicinity shrank back and shuddered. * * * ELECTION TALE-It was noon of election day and the Kiwanis Club was meeting at the Country Club of Coral Gables. Among those present was Representative Pat Cannon, who was sent back to Congress, but who didn't know the outcome at that time. As he stood, talking to a group of men, the Rev. J. Carlton Pelgrim approached, and in a solemn, but loud voice, said, "Pat, I'm sorry to say I didn't vote for you this morning." The Congressman was a bit taken back, but started to mutter something about "that being his privilege... no hard feelings... etc.," when the minister broke into a broad smile. "No, Pat, I didn't vote for you this morning," he said, "because I didn't vote. But I'm going to vote for you this afternoon." * * * WHIMSEY-This bit of verse is lifted from this week's issue of the Lionews, weekly publication of the Coral Gables Lions Club: He rocked the boat, Did Ezra Shank These bubbles mark * * * * * * * * * Where Ezra sank. * * * MISINFORMATION-We were talking to one of the fellows who helps gather information for the Polk City Directory yesterday, who related an experience he had in colored town. He had gotten the information about a Negro woman who lived in one of the houses and then asked her if anyone else lived there. "I got a roomer here by the name of 'George'," she said, "but I dunno what his end-title is."
Just Folks by Jim Moore
One of the most wonderful things about this country of ours is that plain Joe Doakes, citizen, can rear back on his haunches and say what he darn pleases about anyone, no matter what high position the other guy might hold. If he wants to, Joe Doakes can shout to all within hearing distance that he thinks J. Edgar Hoover is a nincompoop and nothing more serious will come of it than perhaps another Joe Doakes giving him an argument to the issue-and maybe a sock in the nose. But, of course, Joe Doakes No. 1 can soak him right back. We shudder to think what would happen if Fritz Shultzenheimer of Munich, Germany, shouted the same thing about Heinrich Himmler, chief of the dread Gestapo. Yep, Joe Doakes, citizen, can JIM MOORE say just about what he pleases. He can criticize everybody from F. D. R. down to his mailman, secure in the knowledge that he will suffer no dire consequences. And he frequently does. But this is what we like about Joe Doakes. While, as a citizen, in this democratic nation of ours, he can say what he pleases-he's always the first guy to roll up his sleeves and start slugging when some un-American, pro-Axis agitator starts running down the government of Uncle Sam. And, furthermore, while a lot of things might not be being run the way he thinks they ought to be, he realizes that his President and the other men and women in his Government are doing their best, and are sincere in doing it, and he's backing them up for all his worth. Joe Doakes is now fighting with all he's got fighting to whip hell out of the power-mad men who are trying to take his freedom away from him. He and his family are giving up a whole lot of things that used to be considered common comforts, because they are needed to sharpen the talons of the American Eagle. And no matter whether he is a Democrat, Republican or Socialist-Protestant, Jew or Catholic, he has cast aside all party lines and petty differences in order to enter the conflict unconfined. Now, strange as it seems, and we admit it with an intense feeling of shame, there are among us some men and women who are not worthy to bear the names American and Citizen. They have been born here, enjoy the same privileges and technicality they are just as much a citizen as the fellow whose blood soaks into the ground at Batan. But they sit back comfortably, puff their cigars and spend nine-tenths of their time complaining, criticizing and bemoaning the national state of affairs. We've met 'em and so have you. A great many of them fall into a self-named class of "Roosevelt Haters." Back in peacetime they took a dislike to the New Deal and have fanned that dislike into fanatical hate. Nothing that the Administration does is right. They label it wrong before they take the trouble to find out what it is. And hell nor high water couldn't change their opinion. They refuse to admit the fact that we are now fighting for our lives, for the very things for which their forefathers died. They refuse to admit that we should forget our party lines and go all out for the very comforts they are now enjoying-our freeedom they seem to hold so lightly. Yet they would be the first to scream if anyone started to take them away. But that isn't the true-to-the-core American. Those fault-finders and flaw pickers aren't the great mass of people who love and are willing to die for the United States. They are but the flimsy foundation of the very few who cause hope to rise in Axis breasts. Of such stuff were made the Quislings of the downtrodden countries of Europe-lad and by a long shot the guerillas who took to the hills and who dart out time and time again to strike devastating blows against Hitler's oppressors. To be sure, all of us criticise. But we do it, knowing that those we have placed in authority are doing their level best. We do it in a spirit of helpfulness and co-operation-not to tear down and destroy. When this war is over and the Axis scourges have been wiped forever from the face of the earth, it won't be the flaw-pickers who can say, "I did it." It will be little Joe Doakes, American, who proudly squares his shoulders and says, "Right or wrong, it's my country and my President, and I'll go through Hell for both of 'em."
Book Briefs
"It's the Gypsy in Me," by Konrad Bercovici (Prentice Hall, Inc.) Reviewed by LOUISE LEYDEN The plaintive, haunting melody of a violin, bands of colorful, dark-eyed Gypsies gathered in the soft glow of a campfire; the historic Danube, frozen hard in the heart of winter-these are the earliest memories of the author of this recent autobiography. Mr Bercovici, while not a Gypsy himself, knows thoroughly the temperament, the habits, and even the language of these roving, romantic people. Born in Roumania, he had an opportunity to become acquainted with them, first from his Gypsy nurse, Tinka, and later from his frequent trips with his father, who sold horses and cattle to the Gypsies. "It's the Gypsy in Me" is a virile bit of writing from the pen of a versatile and active author. The reader is constantly playing at mental hopscotch, so swiftly does the writer transport him from one situation to another. One meets the high and the low and hears various political philosophies discussed, the author hewing to the course his adopted country has set down. The book is kaleidoscopic in its content, reflecting clearly the unusual personality of the man, who found, by his earnest efforts, fame and fortune in America.