Coral Gables Riviera

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CORAL GABLES RIVIERA

PAGE 6 - - THE CORAL GABLES RIVIERA - - FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1942 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 Charles S. Leyden......................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 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.

Save Rubber, Metal

The Government's story is that no one expected the American people to do such a good job of saving waste paper. Six months ago there was a shortage of material for the paper mills. Now there is a surplus of paper. That ought to be a lesson to our own Government not to call on the American people to do a job unless they expect a whale of a good job to be done. It ought to be a lesson to the Axis that we are beginning to substitute "too much and too soon" for "too little and too late." Which reminds us of Mr. Nelson's hope that he would only be criticized for producing too much war material. Apparently Washington underestimated the enthusiasm and thoroughness of Americans. Maybe someone had spread the rumor around up there that there is still a lot of complacency out in the hinterland. It turned out that there isn't much. Given the job of whipping the paper shortage, the American people drove the shortage into a surplus before Washington could catch its breath. The story of how the battle of paper was won is a stirring chapter in the epic of World War II on the home front. Housewives saved every sack and newspaper. Men carefully laid aside the cards and cases with which their jobs deal. Children gathered paper to collection points in baby carriages and toy wagons. Bundles of paper were strapped to running boards and on top of cars. Coral Gables trucks picked up bundles from beside garbage cans. City bailers took the collection and turned it into carloads. From cities, towns and villages waste paper moved on the mills in a stream that widened into rivers of paper: It has begun to look as if a mountain of waste paper has been erected from the saving of a willing and patriotic nation. Dade County calls it a magnificent job. Florida, as usual, was well out in front of the parade of states. On instructions from Washington, Clayton C. Codrington, executive secretary of the Florida salvage committee, has called a halt on the paper drive. A new shortage may develop, he advises. If so the Government will send out another call. Meanwhile, no more paper need be saved. The salvage campaign goes on. Get in the Scrap and Slap the Jap with Scrap are still vital slogans. Not scrap paper any more but scrap metal and rubber. Uncle Sam says the need for iron, steel, copper, zinc and other metals is still acute. And we need all the rubber we can find. Defense Council funds to equip first aid stations and other essential services can still be obtained from the sale of metals and rubber. Collection of hard scrap will help win the war. One state has a goal of enough ferrous metals to build two battleships. Perhaps our town could gather enough to build four-motored bombers or medium tanks from attics and closets. A battle has been won. The war is still going on.

Let's All Pitch In

In planning to operate a service center in Coral Gables for Army and Navy enlisted personnel, the Coral Gables Junior Woman's Club has tackled a very ambitious project. But taking on tough tasks is not new to that energetic group of young women, and we have every confidence that they will see it through to completion. The need for such a center in Coral Gables is obvious. The young men in training here have no means of transportation to take them to Miami and Miami Beach centers, and, therefore, should have a recreation spot of their own. For the present, the American Legion is endeavoring to fill this gap—but generous as this gesture may be, the boys really should have a place that is all their own. The young ladies are going to need lots of help in this project, and we hope that the other clubs in Coral Gables will pitch in and aid them. Let's all work with the Junior Woman's Club to put this project over with a bang.

WALTER LIPPMANN

In connection with last week's official optimism and the official warnings against optimism, the real point at issue is not the morale of the people. It is the conduct of the war. More specifically, the objective of the official publicity is that it kissed off the most critical weakness in the conduct of the war, which is shipping. The first White House statement in its emphasis on the production of cargo ships announced, which the whole shipping situation does not justify. The joint Army-Navy report ignored altogether the battle with the submarines. As the end of the week, the correction with the warning not to be over-optimistic, the nation was told optimistically that the submarine 'problem, like the others confronting us, is being solved. Whatever may have been the intent, the effect of this train of publicity would, if it is not challenged, be to relieve the pressures of Congress and of the press from the shipping problem. They cannot offord to let themselves be deflected. Public opinion has a part to play in the solution of the shipping problem. For the solution of that problem depends upon overcoming inertia in high places and upon reinforcing the men within the services and the government departments who are fighting an uphill fight against place-holders, bureaucrats, vested interests and inadequacy. The struggle for greater efficiency is troublesome and disagreeable, because it cannot be argued out of the level of general principles and impersonal data. It turns on men in key positions, and, therefore, no matter how restrained the criticism, it causes pain to men who have worked hard and loyally, and well—and whose only fault may be that they have grown old and tired, or are not equal to an unprecedented situation. In a perfect world they recognize their own limitations, would delegate their authority, or would retire. In fact, superiors would recognize their limitations and translate them quickly and honorably to other posts. In fact, this does happen fairly often. But it does not always happen, and in many, many instances, it does not happen 'until there is a disagreeable row and enough outside pressure to force a change. Such for better or worse in the course of these rows reputations are damaged and feelings are hurt and friendships are broken up. But that is the way things are, and at times that is the only way in which necessary things are done. It is plain that neither Congress, nor the press, nor the general public can tell the Navy Department and the Shipping authorities how to solve the shipping problem. All they can do is to hold the responsible officials responsible for the results, and invite someone to take either the organization or the personnel appear, after inquiry, to be inadequate. Pressure will, I believe, have to be brought upon the Navy Department if the campaign against the submarine is to be waged more successfully. For the conduct of this particular campaign, which has been undeniably clumsy, from the viewpoint of the Navy in the Pacific and in the North Atlantic and elsewhere, the Navy Department is subject to criticism on several counts. There is, first of all, the fact the the Navy does not yet have enough escort vessels to protect shipping on the east coast and in the Caribbean. This shortage may be due in part to errors of professional judgment in regard to specifications before we entered the war, in part to delays and disappointments in some phases of production. But is is due, also, there is reason to think, to the fact that the Navy does not have in charge of ship construction a man who is a master of the art of mass production. Naval constructors, especially in time of peace, has never been done by the methods of mass production. It is very difficult for traditional constructors, even of cargo ships, to believe that ships could be built as mass production. Yet it has been proved that cargo ships can be. Escort vessels certainly could be built that way, too. They are, or should be, simple in design, and the great need is to have lots of them quickly. The program of escort vessels would, we may believe, go forward much better if the production of these vessels were put under the same kind of management as is now operating so successfully in the West Coast shipyards, in the tractor plants and in the tank arsenals. If the inquiry were pressed, it would be found that naval constructors in a car would at once object that a great deal about the ancient art of shipbuilding, but not much, if anything, about the new art of mass production. The fact is that the Navy Department is not properly staffed to get the production of the escort ships which the Navy must have. Then, the Navy Department is not properly organized and staffed for the campaign against the submarine. I have been told that within each area where the campaign is being is being fought there now exists unity of command over the naval, air and land forces engaged. This is true in the sense that at the highest levels in Washington the agreements have been reached. But there is a big difference between unity of command on paper and effective unity of command in fact. For that depends not upon the paper orders, but on the quality of the man who exercises the unified command. The separatism and the rivalry and the autonomy of the services and the bureaus can not be broken down merely by a written in Washington. They can be made to disappear only when a man takes the command, and by the vigour of his direction and the force of his will he makes a reality of what exists on paper. If in their spheres General MacArthur and Admiral Nimitz exercise effective command, it is because they are men who cannot and will not be resisted when they exercise command. The story of the loss of the Normandie shows how far we were only a few weeks ago from having unity of command or the will to exercise it along the Atlantic seaboard where the submarine war is being fought. We are now told that the condition of authority which led to the loss of the Normandie has been cleared up. The question still remains whether the new authority is being exercised in a spirit radically better than that which prevailed when the Normandie was lost. If the question is delicate, it is also critically important. For in great battles the quality of the commander may well be decisive—good equipment and brave men are not in themselves sufficient. This is peculiarly the case in the campaign with the submarine, where there is such an immense premium upon initiative, inventiveness, improvisation and the capacity to inspire men in their long vigils and their monotonous hardships. The post of command in this battle is one of the great commands of the war, and the man who can exercise that command must eventually be found. (Copyright, 1942, New York Tribune, Inc.)

This ONE'S ON YOU

WIRE TAPPING—Frank Holley was impressing the Kiwanis Club last week with a story about wire tapping. Frank said that he was down at the dock where he keeps his boat when a friend phoned him about a fishing trip. While they were discussing plans, a voice cut in saying, "This is the Coast Guard. Just where are you planning to go and have you permission to take your boat? Frank was stressing the point of how careful the Government was acting, even to the extent of cutting in on private phone conversations, when Obie Sutton arose and spoiled the story by revealing that he was the "mystery voice" that cut in on an extension phone. * MYSTERY TRIP—Obie Sutton is out of town and there seems to be considerable conjecture about where he has gone. Tom Mayes announced at a luncheon the other day that Obie had gone to Washington and no sooner had he sat down when Ralph Wilkins jumped to his feet and said, "No sir, Obie and I are trying for the postmaster's job and Obie's gone to Washington to get a head start on me." * APPRECIATION—When Miss Eleanor Norton left her position with Dowling Brothers this week to accept a place at Camp Rucker, near Ozark, Ala., a relationship was broken that does not always exist between employer and employee. Miss Norton had been with the firm from its beginning and knew every detail of the business. She was almost indispensable, and as a token of appreciation of her work Lonnie and Ressie Dowling decided to give her a present as a token of their regard, and one that would be a constant reminder of Coral Gables and the firm. They therefore selected a subscription to The Riviera. This newspaper will, therefore, be delivered to her each week with all the home news for her perusal. Miss Norton was born in Cuba, but her parents, Mr. and Mrs. H. H. Norton, who live on Sunset Drive, brought her to this country to be educated. She was graduated from Agnes Scott College and from the University of Miami, Magna Cum Laude. Her Uncle, Colonel F. W. Manley, is commanding officer at Camp Rucker. He is a West Point graduate and was formerly chief of staff at Camp Blanding. * SAM SAVES—A new method of saving rubber and gasoline has been devised by "Salesman Sam", Chain of the Coral Gables Furniture Company. It has been his custom in the past to spend almost the entire day making routine calls in his automobile for his company. Now he spends only half of the day on the outside and the other half in the store. In this manner, he says, he has cut his tire and gasoline expense in half.

Mark Sullivan

Senator Lee of Oklahoma telegraphed a request to President Roosevelt. It was about rationing of gas in his and other states where gas and oil come out of the ground—hence involve little or no transportation. Senator Lee asked that, if there is to be rationing in oil-producing communities, the necessity of it be explained to the public. The spirit of this request is shared by other Senators and Representatives from oil-producing states. In all that part of the country where oil is produced, or to which it can be carried without water transportation, there is protest. There is some protest even in Eastern seaboard states. Even though these understand that they get their gas and oil largely by water and that water transportation is restricted by submarines, nevertheless there is some protest. The public in all the states needs the explanation Senator Lee asks for. But gas cannot be explained without explaining some other things. Gas, rubber and ships are related. They are gas, rubber and ships. Begin with rubber. (I speak here of new rubber only, without reference to reclaimed rubber.) The shortage is absolute and desperately serious. One fact is sufficient. Of all our normal supply, some 95 per cent came from the Far East. This is now cut off—all of it. The quantity on hand in America when the stoppage occurred through Japan's victories was about one year's supply for normal civilian use. But now this is needed for military use immediately or in the near future. If we were willing to be ruthless in self-sacrifice and if it were practicable, every pound of new rubber now in the United States would be withdrawn for our armed forces and those of our Allies. How soon and from where can we get more new rubber? There is talk of planting in this country a kind of rubber plant called guayule. As to this, informed persons are skeptical about quantity possible to produce and the time needed to produce it. There is talk of rubber from South America. But the quantity is small, the quality inferior—and it would take ships to get it here. Rubber from South America runs up against one of our other great shortages, the shortage of ships. There is synthetic rubber. This we will produce; factories are setting about it. Synthetic rubber, when we get to producing it in quantity, will be—so this writer is assured by one who knows the subject—better and less expensive than natural rubber. But how soon can we produce synthetic rubber in material quantity? There are varying estimates—none less than a year. In any estimate—about producing something wholly new, for which we have no experience and under wartime conditions of scare labor and scarce raw materials and some inevitable confusion—in any estimate it will be prudent to add an extra year or so as a margin for error or safety. Synthetic rubber is a matter of mass production, and about mass production there seems to be two contrary rules. One is the quantity produced, after factories get fully under way, is greater than was expected. But the other rule is, it takes longer to get under way than is commonly expected. And even after we get mass production of synthetic rubber, the output for the first year or so may be needed for war. Any citizen making an estimate for himself would be prudent to assume it may be two years before he is able to get synthetic rubber tires freely. If we can't get rubber tires, why complain about not getting gas? This applies to the whole of the country—use of an automobile wears out rubber at fast in Oklahoma as in New York. True, there are uses of gas which do not entail use of rubber—gas for industrial purposes, oil for heating and as fuel in factories. As respects these uses there is justification for the attitude of oil-producing communities. There is no ground for rationing oil or gas when used for purposes other than automobiles in sections where oil is produced. But in the eastern states oil and gas for any purpose are, to some extent, a charge upon water transportation, upon ships. And ships are as serious a shortage as rubber. Beneath all this are some grim facts which America must look in the face, and the sooner the better. We are under stark necessity for a national exertion of materials and manpower so prodigious that few realize it. There are few short cuts that are practicable. There will be short cuts for effectiveness in war—and it is the nature of American genius to find them. But there can be no short cuts for the benefit of civilian convenience and comfort at the expense of war. If we propose new pipe lines to carry oil and gas for civilian use, the raw material for (Please turn to Page 8)

THE CORAL GABLES RIVIERA

By Jim Moore We Americans are great observers of anniversaries. In fact, visitors from foreign countries have often expressed amazement at the number of holidays we have here, each one celebrating the anniversary of some historical event. Next Sunday, therefore, will have a particular significance to the American people. Even if we didn't go in for the observance of anniversaries, we could never forget next Sunday. For when that day comes, it will be exactly six months since Pearl Harbor! That was a Sunday, too. A Sunday stained forever with blood and treachery. It was that day of infamy that gave birth to the full - throated cry of vengeance, "Remember Pearl Harbor." Hardest hit by the surprise and severe was the United States Navy—and the bluejackets are determined to hit back the hardest. In commemoration of Pearl Harbor, the U. S. Navy Recruiting Service, at the precise moment the first bomb fell, plans to stage mass enlistments throughout the country. In Florida, at our seven sub-stations—Miami, Jacksonville, Tampa, Gainesville, Orlando, Tallahassee and St. Petersburg the recruiting officers will be ready to swear in hundreds of young Floridians eager to hurl the Jap challenge back in their teeth. Already there are many Gablesites garbed in the uniforms of Uncle Sam's Navy. These youths are the advance guard of many more to come. Already they have started the offensive that, in the end, will make the little yellow men of Nippon "Remember Pearl Harbor" with deep regret. The Navy has no draft boards sending it recruits. Every man wearing the uniform is a volunteer. He has chosen that branch of the service of his own free will. He has cast his lot with our country's first line defense—the branch that will be the first to avenge those who died on that memorable Sunday. To the young men of Coral Gables the Navy offers a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is to their patriotism and their willingness to serve their country in time of dire need. The opportunity is to join one of the finest fighting forces in the world and pay back, tenfold, the blow dealt by the little yellow-bellies at Pearl Harbor. We into that the youth of this community will answer that challenge eagerly and willingly. The Navy enlistments from this community have already proven that. We think that many more will follow the lead of those who have already gone. The week of December 7, after the dastardly deed at Pearl Harbor was known, Navy recruiters worked 24 hours a day. Let's make them work equally long next Sunday. They'll enjoy it.

Book Briefs

"Flight to Arras," by Antoine de Saint-Exupery (Reynal & Hitchcock, Publishers). Reviewed by LOUISE LEYDEN The American reading public is familiar with Antoine de Saint-Exupery's "Wind, Sand and Stars," which received a wide acclaim in this country when first published. Now the author has come through with another book, "Flight to Arras," which should prove to be of equal interest. While the actual time covered by this book is but a part of a single evening, still, as the author looks back upon it in a reflective and introspective mood, it seems to reach far back into the annals of time, into a deep abyss dugout built her house upon more solid foundations and when her enemies were faced by a defiant and a united people. Arras is a French town. Or, at least, it was before the Germans took it over. It was in the hands of the Germans when the author's commanding officer ordered him, together with his gunner and his observer, on a "sortie," a reconnaissance flight over territory bristling with anti-aircraft guns and whose sky was filled with fighter planes. It looked like certain death. But the author was one to take orders and to carry them out to the best of his ability. He had a vague notion of what he and others of his group were fighting for, yet he wasn't quite sure. But orders were orders so he set out on his "sortie," the kind of "sortie" from which only one of three returned. Flying at an altitude of 33,000 feet, he felt a thing apart from the earth he had so recently left. He sailed through cold space like one from another sphere. It was only after he had brought his plane down to a few hundred feet of the earth that he realized his affinity to the kaleidoscopic scene that moved before his glass shield. Fields of waving wheat, the glint of anti-aircraft guns, long lines of evacuees—these all brought to his mind more forcibly the reason France was fighting, even though her back was to the wall, and why he, and others like himself, were sent on "sorties" from which few returned. "Flight to Arras" is largely philosophical in its scope. The actual flight is but a skeleton upon which are hung the flesh and blood of intense meditation. Saint-Exupery searches himself, his friends—France herself—seeking to find the answer the world will one day know. Out of confusion, chaos and defeatism the reader is conscious of virile seed, which, although in the dormant stage at present, will sprout, take root and emerge when the time is propitious. The writer has demonstrated not only his ability to harness his emotions but has shown his skill as an aviator—one who could carry out his mission in the face of defeat.