The Coral Gables Times

THE CORAL GABLES TIMES

Established Jan. 15, 1926 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 Roy Speier | Circulation Manager Maurice Labelle, Raymond Lang, Becky Doyle-Quinn | Reporters Mrs. Irene Stoeber | Classified Manager Miss Helen Reynolds | Society Editor Mrs. Eleanor Newsholme | Office Manager Subscription: $3.00 year by mail anywhere

And So, Down With the Government!

"That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government. . . "When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security." A captured Communist document? Not at all. It's as American as the Fourth of July. In fact, those words are from the Declaration of Independence. Those and other phrases from the fluid pen of Thomas Jefferson catalogued the causes and urged a people to rebellion, to revolution, to overthrow the established order. Consider it. We, the people of the colonies instituted rebellion against our mother country 185 years ago. We celebrate it Tuesday. As more than half the world's population struggles to free itself from despotism—either political or economic or both—let us not forget our own origins. We, too, have been revolutionaries. It is an honorable calling.

A Hurrah & A Lament

It was an eminently sensible move and the Times applauds it. We're talking of the City Commission's action Tuesday to let the Dade County voting list serve as the City of Coral Gables' own registration list. The practical result is to make about 6,000 more voters eligible to vote in city elections. (That many more Gableites are registered to vote in the county than in the Gables.) It's frustrating to have to wait, in effect, four years before the list will become operative in Gables elections. City Manager L. W. Robinson Jr. says it would work a hardship on his office, inconvenience a goodly number of voters and perhaps create confusion on the voter list itself if all transferring were done between now and Jan. 1, 1962. For instance, voters now on the city list but not on the county's will have to re-register in order to vote in our municipal elections. Robinson feels, justifiably in our opinion, that these people should be given adequate time to get their names down again. If the list switch is not in effect by Jan. 1, 1962, state law requires that such a change be initiated in an odd year (1963) and effective in an even one (1964). It's a good thing and worth waiting for.

Long-Stemmed Roses

Coral Gables deserves the good things that happen to it. Among some recent ones: Our Jaycees won their first national award last week and took not one but two. The youth and energy that these 180 men bring to bear for community good have benefitted the Gables in many ways. Shortly, we are told, they will announce a project perhaps more ambitious than any yet undertaken. It is heartening to see the Mircale Mile Association being tuned up to do business. For too long, Mile promotions have tended to appear to take on the sponsorship of the Retail Merchants Division of the Chamber of Commerce. This has acted to create ill will in the fringe areas of the Gables and even in the non-Mile downtown section. Other merchants have incorrectly inferred that the Retail Merchants Division was principally a captive of the Miracle Mile merchants. We need a strong RMD. By having an active Mile association, we'll move more quickly toward a vigorous RMD that serves all Gables merchants. In Don Mullen, the Miracle Milers picked a doer and a good organizer. He will serve them well. And on top of all this, it's a good season for mangos. Who says the world's not improving?

What's to Replace the Plowman? Coming Next, the Corporation Farm

By PHILLIPS RUSSELL Correspondent Most of us are aware that the old-fashioned family farm has for several years been struggling to survive, but not many have been able to visualize its possible successor. Next, says Dr. W. L. Gibson of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, we may witness the arrival of the corporation farm, or at least the corporate form of farming. A farm of this kind will organize and finance its operations much like the business corporation common in big cities. It will issue its own securities, have its president, secretary and treasurer, limit its liabilities and plan for its own continuity. It will, says Dr. Gibson, probably specialize in one or a few products, concentrate on a uniform product, and sell its wares under contract. Florida is familiar with the rise of great companies specializing in fruits and vegetables, but the new form seen by Dr. Gibson may be of different scope. Where one farmer finds it hard to make ends meet, he may form a partnership with a neighbor and combine their strength and knowledge. From a partnership the natural development will be toward a corporation. This development has been hastened by the buying methods of the big chain stores and the contract-grown products encouraged by the food companies. There's no denying that all the present conditions point to some such development under which the individual ceases to be an independent operator and becomes an employee or satellite of a well-financed corporation. The alteration in the American way of life will in that case be deep. For hitherto the individual, whether in country or city, has been supreme. No other nation has seen such an encourager of individualism, even when pushed to extremes. This national encouragement has drawn millions from the tightly stratified Old World to this continent. This stream has now been cut to a trickle. Who has been more of an individual than the small and independent farmer? He has supplied not only food and feed but health and vigor to towns and capitals. When he is gone, the country must find a new source of human vitality.

OFF BEAT

By MAURICE LABELLE Secretary of Commerce Luther Hodges isn't the first one to say it, but his recent statements criticizing the loss of selling ability in America is one that may finally find an ear. Hodges points out that even a slight increase in selling produces a tremendous change in the overall economic picture. All of us are salesmen, in a way, whether selling services or a product, for ourselves or for an employer. Several experiences bear out the commerce secretary's point. Recently my wife went into a local shop to purchase a bathing suit. She reports that the clerk treated her with what amounted to downright hostility although there had been no provocation. Recently, I attempted to cash a payroll check on a local bank in which it was drawn—a weekly occurrence for nearly three years. The cashier refused to honor the check. Determined to see just how much trouble it would be to get the check cashed, I made three trips between the office and the bank before the check was cashed. The clerk's explanation: "You should get acquainted with all the clerks!" This same institution refused to cash a certified check a few weeks later. Will I ever start an account in that bank? Will I ever recommend that bank to anyone? Another financial institution charged an exorbitant fee to cash a certified check after a sizeable account had been closed out two days before. For that reason I was flabbergasted when I walked into another Gables bank recently and was told that there was no fee for making out a gift check. I predict that the third bank will outstrip the other two. —ML— The recent proposal to change the name of the Miracle Mile Merchants Association to the Miracle Mile Guild got tied up in knots. Said Mrs. Lucille Page, wife of one of the promoters of the Mile, "It sounds like a sewing circle." Carroll Seghers was also cool to the name. A guild is too much like "A close-knit association," said Seghers. Miracle Mile Association got a majority vote. —ML— Sam Weissel is campaigning to have the Mile covered with Old Glory on the Fourth. "I'm not selling flags," said Weissel. —ML— Many of us have an idea that the job of municipal judge is a juicy plum. After talking to Judge Charles Spooner the other night, I came away feeling glad I didn't have to make some of the decisions he had to make. Spooner related how he was villified for heavy sentences handed down in the recent cases.

“Easy now, we made a pretty big one ourselves.”

Sages Of The Ages

Once fully enslaved, no nation, state, city of this earth, ever afterward resumes its liberty. — Walt Whitman. It is as fatal as it is cowardly to blink facts because they are not to our taste.— John Tyndall. The man who in this world can keep the whiteness of his soul, is not likely to lose it in any other.—Alexander Smith. A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg.— Samuel Butler. Knowledge of human nature is the beginning and end of political education—Henry Brooks Adams. At best, the renewal of broken relations is a nervous matter.—Henry Brooks Adams. It is not enough to do good; one must do it the right way.—John, Viscount Morley. Language is as much an art and as sure a refuge as painting or music or literature—Jane Ellen Harrison. The world cannot live at the level of its great men.—Sir James George Frazer.

The Play's the Thing Out of Theatre, Too

By HELEN O'NEILL Correspondent Most of the plays published within the last year are plays of unusual interest. With just a bit of imagination these plays are as exciting to read as they are to see performed on the stage. Several of these plays are based on actual characters who are living or who have lived in this century. "DEAR LIAR" by Jerome Klity is based on the correspondence of George Bernard Shaw and the famous actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the only characters in the play. It will delight all Shavian admirers. "FIORELLO" by Weidman and Abbott is a gay musical comedy based on Fiorello LaGuardia, former mayor of New York City. "THE SOUND OF MUSIC" by Howard Lindsay is based on the Trapp Family Singers. "THE MIRACLE WORKER" by William Gibson is a poignant play that will touch the hearts of all as it is based on childhood scenes in the life of the beloved Helen Keller. Miss Keller was born a normal child but at the age of 19 months an illness left her blind and deaf. Therefore she was unable to learn to speak. Into her life came Miss Annie Sullivan who taught her to communicate by fingertip or manual braille, as well as braille. The second act of this play has one of the most dramatic scenes in all American drama. These new plays and many others are available at your Coral Gables Public Library