The Coral Gables Times

THE Coral Gables TIMES

| Published Weekly at 264 Sevilla Ave., Coral Gables, Fla. | Second Class Postage Paid at Miami, Fla. | ROLFE NEILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor & Publisher | JOHN T. WATTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . President | Robert M. Slane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Advertising Manager | Subscription: $3.00 year by mail anywhere

Spare the Rod And Spoil the Editor

A lady reader does not spare the rod on the editor elsewhere on this page today. We are grateful for her right, applaud her spunk and question her logic. She is correct in sizing up the job: The citizen's support is being called for in a time of unprecedented need for our country. So the question becomes, How does the citizen show his support? By signing some oath that he isn't a Communist? By citing his family's contributions of fighting men during past wars? By wagging the finger of suspicion against his neighbor for what he believes? Hardly. Affirmations are ritual, ritual not only for the patriotic but ritual for the clever deceiver who would sell us all out to Moscow. What is demanded for these perilous times are deeds. The first deed, we would suggest, is to know the enemy. Educate ourselves about what we're really fighting. In Cuba, for instance, we are blind if we only denounce Castro as a devil and fail to see that out of his dastardly regime has come some good for the oppressed people of that country. True, his agrarian reforms are being largely swallowed up again by an even more imperialistic landlord, the government itself. But the point is that the people, even under a Communist, are getting somewhere. The second deed, it seems to us, is to take a stand on issues, supporting our President where we can. Here it should be remembered that no one has yet proved that the way to fight totalitarianism is with the same weapon. As Jefferson observed in his First Inaugural Address: "Error of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it." Finally, we must act to prove our own democracy is what we claim it is. As long as we burn buses which Negroes choose to ride in a mere assertion of their rights we shall be busy with our own doorstep. We must not forget that democracy demands the right to experiment, the right to dissent and the right to hold contrary views. We only divide ourselves over false issues when we insist on signing a non-Communist oath.

We Can't Do Anything But Lose

"There is one aspect of this budget which I view with a great deal of concern. We speak of countywide services in the areas of police and fire training, central records and communications, one jail system, a countywide library system and other services which this government was designed to render. "The sobering reality of this budget is this: It does not provide for the extension of implementation of a single one of these services in the basic requests." - County Manager Irving McNayr The enemies of Metro government will delight in those statements, saying, "We told you so." The Times, as an enemy of Metro where Metro isn't needed and a supporter of it where it is, finds in Mr. McNayr's remarks a warning. We hope our prudent townspeople agree with the implications there and react accordingly. Here, in Metro's own words, are the undeniable reasons why Coral Gables shouldn't yield its sovereign interests in many of its services which it performs better than Metro ever will. Most immediately at hand is the question of the county's taking over our bus system. (Who has forgotten the motorcycle "deal" where we stripped our traffic force and have had nought in return?) We can hear it in next year's budget message: "The sobering reality of this budget is this: It does not provide for the extension or implementation of a single one of the transportation services asked for by the City of Coral Gables since Metro took over its system." A word to the wise etc. The Times asks citizens here to make up their minds on the bus issue and if they are of the same mind as we, prepare to resist Metro's coming courtship. We can't do anything but lose.

The Moment of Truth

OFF BEAT By MAURICE LABELLE

Anything you can do we can do it better often reflects the attitude of Coral Gables vis a vis Metropolitan government. There is some truth that a well run municipality can handle many things as well, if not better, than a larger unit of government. But some problems overwhelm the smaller cities. There just isn't money enough to do all the things that should be done and done properly. Take the problem of assuring you that the eggs you get marked "large" are not a miniature version. Or that a gallon of gas contains four quarts and is not largely water or other impurities. Or that the free dish in the soap box you buy isn't included with the total weight of soap stated on the package. These are things that go largely unnoticed in Coral Gables - and for that matter in all other municipalities and Dade County with the exception of Miami, which has the only weights and measures division. But even there, Harvey Howard, supervisor of the Division of Trade Standards, will tell you he doesn't have the manpower to watch all the crooks. Howard and other men of foresight sought to have Metro take over the Miami setup as a nucleus for a countywide system, but their efforts failed when the Metropolitan Home Rule Charter was drafted and later when the Metro Commission attempted to draft an ordinance but were told it wasn't kosher because of the Charter shortcomings. The state does have some laws on the books, but they are largely unenforced. Only two agents cover a seven-county area, including Dade. There is nothing controversial about ounces and pounds, Howard points out. But somehow the necessary legislation has not materialized. Florida is indeed a haven for fast buck artists. - ML - Mangoes have lost one of their great admirers. Ivan Cunningham, former vice president and director of International Petroleum Company, has left the Gables for New York City where Ivan will probably find it difficult to grow the tasty fruit in window boxes and snow. - ML - Lila Dickerson and Mrs. Jerome Wood, active recently on the hot issue of high rise buildings, find that meetings of the new City Commission leaves them cold. "I'm sorry gentlemen, but it's too cold," Mrs. Wood told commissioners politely as the ladies left. - ML - Appearances of City Commissioners on Bert Graulich's WVCG Wednesday program to relate the actions of the Commission, some of them highly controversial pre-election items, caused cynics to dub the program "The Hour of Sweetness and Light," and "The Hour of Charm."

THE MAILBOX

EDITOR: Re your editorial May 25 about not signing a non-Communist oath: Better a few Communists go unnoticed than a U.S. citizen be required to exercise his right and responsibility to swear allegiance to the preservation of the United States Constitution. That all too common argument on our rights being infringed upon makes me sick. Better you might have stated our support is being called for in a time of need. MRS. R. G. SLAYTON 267 Alhambra Cir.

Everybody's Business By Rolfe Neill

Reading Dogs Does anyone beside me find intrinsic humor in the sign on the Post Office door in Coral Gables: "No Dogs Admitted (Except Seeing Eye Dogs)". * * * For Want of Nail Reporter Raymond Lang was around at Gulf Oil's new headquarters last week talking to William Dick. An employe walked in and said, "there's a squeak in the front door, sir, have you any oil?" I hate to tell you the answer that came from one of the executives who heads Gulf's oil exploration office for the whole Western hemisphere. * * * Educational Heading my list of objectionable people are those who begin, "I used to work on a newspaper." Then they tell you how to run yours. As far as I'm concerned, they lost all prerogatives when they got out of the business. What makes them objectionable is that in nine cases out of 10 they're a perfect ass. That introduction is an alert to you that somebody's going to tell you they are vastly superior to your way of doing things. They may be but they needn't announce it. If they are, it will be self-evident. * * * What Do You Say? At a Chamber of Commerce meeting the other day I sat between two opinions on one idea. The idea: Business isn't as much fun today as it used to be. The opinions: Man No. 1 - "The government hems you in and tells you what to do. Help is sorry. People aren't willing to work any more. Customers aren't as pleasant. You work your head off for nothing." Man No. 2 - "Business is more fun than ever. Sure, the government takes a lot, but the businessman today has bigger challenges than before. He's got to relate himself, and his business, to world problems." Which do you agree with? * * * Hello, Hello Not long ago I was telling about Dennis Welsh and his love for baseball. There's something I forgot to mention. Dennis says the one luxury he's allowing himself in retirement is the use of long distance telephone calls. He spends about $80 or $90 moly just calling friends on impulse. "It's wonderful," he says.

Tolerance -- His View Is Different

Contact with other peoples is often represented as making inevitably for tolerance. But that is true only for those who have already been greatly educated to tolerance. The simple man everywhere is apt to see whatever differs from himself as an affront, a challenge and a menace. And though the sold'er might sometimes find something in his allies to admire and even to like, not to say a great deal more to jeer at with more or less good-natured contempt, yet what he was most likely to bring back from contact with Catholic, unpuritanical Gallic civilization, and with the perversely upsidedown Englander - what he was most likely to bring back was not tolerance but a heightened sense of the rightness and superiority of his own way, and a heightened fear and dislike of all difference. And so by so much as his pattern was more simple and unvaried, as he was more trained to suspicion and distrust of difference, as he was less accustomed to contact with alien persons and ideas, this was probably more true of the Southerner than of other American soldiers. "The Mind of the South" By W. J. Cash, 1941.

Remember The Times

25 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Mayor Roscoe Brunstetter was appointed chairman of th finance division of the National Democratic committee for Coral Gables . . . Ponce de Leon Boulevard was resurfaced with sand as a project of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) . . . Martin Buxby and George Andrade won the Gables' doubles title in tennis when they defeated Roswell Lee and Moses Mondul in the finals . . . Biltmore Country Club diving star, Marshall Wayne was headed for the 1936 Olympics. 10 YEARS AGO THIS WEEK Rumor had it that the University of Miami might be granted permission to start a medical college . . . Henry R Carpenter was named vice-president of the Coral Gables First National Bank . . . Every Gables merchant was required to file a price fixing chart for all merchandise to be sold . . . Bob Brenner directed the Jewish Center Theatre Guild's second production of the season, "The Jazz Singer." 1 YEAR AGO THIS WEEK Police began issuing tickets to motorists for leaving keys in the ignition while the car was unattended . . . Chris S. Wood caught a fish and hooked himself in the finger while trying to remove the fish . . . Exmoor School, 803 Anastasia Ave., was put up for sale as a private home. The once highly rated private school was a Gables' landmark for 31 years.