The Coral Gables Times

CORAL GABLES TIMES

Thursday, February 22, 1962

Taking the Right Step

On Tuesday of this week our town fathers decided that an audit should be made of the books of Consumers Water Co., the private enterprise granted a monopoly to sell us water. The audit's purpose is to determine if the firm should have lower rates than it now has in effect here. Our sister city of South Miami has won lower rates for itself after a three-year court fight, a fight which the Gables scorned and wouldn't join. The City Commission, until now, has shown a reluctance to tend to its duties on this water rate matter. The Times is delighted to see the commission doing what it should. The audit is no reflection on Consumers. No one knows for sure what it will turn up. The point is that a monopoly has responsibilities as well as privileges. Our City Commissioners need not be apologetic about making sure we get our money's worth.

Would Jesus Have Done As Max Morris?

We don't believe any perceptive observer of contemporary religion can find much fault in the precision of the devastating analysis offered last week in The Herald by the Rev. Max Morris as to why he resigned his pastorate at South Miami Baptist Church. The youthful (33) departing cleric said his resignation was a "protest." Among many things, he was protesting "that concept of the ministry which forces the pastor to be an executive, an administrator, an organizational genius, a public-relations expert, a confessor to hundreds of people who have 'stumped their toes' ... "A protest against ecclesiastical machines which measure success by attendance records, larger budgets and million dollar building programs ... Against the idea that a postor must be a 'jolly-do-well,' a back slapper, a smiling, affable dunce, and a good mixer ... "A protest against a system which makes out of the minister everything except what God expects him to be—a spiritual leader and preacher of the word ..." Mr. Morris will return, he says, to evangelism. He leaves his church with a congregation newly-embarked on a most ambitious building program of some half million dollars. His resignation was prompted in no way by any dissension or upset within his flock, he said. The Baptist minister gives us much to think about. Unquestionably, he hits the bullseye on a major part of what is wrong with mid-20th century Christianity. And just as surely it is to be observed that these are man's problems, conceived in his own image and not in God's. It is nationally recognized that many ministers are led into mental breakdown by an overburden of organizational duties. The Christian people in America — not the church—stand indicted because of it. As for that, Mr. Morris makes his point. The remedy, or course, is obvious: Let the laymen run the church. We wonder about the form he took, with his resignation. He chose to cite Jesus Christ as a non-conformist and one who gave His life in "protest." We would not presume to lecture a Baptist preacher on the Bible but as we understand it Christ chose just the opposite method of protest. Rather than retreat from the problems of the day, the Nazarene sought them. True, in the end he did give His life but only after doing everything else to alert His people to their moral decay and spiritual needs. That method has stood the scrutiny of time; the method is to work from within, to be not overcome with evil but overcome evil with good. There are many men of the cloth who agree with Mr. Morris about what needs to be done to return religion to its prosper perspective. The job is more apt to be accomplished by those thinking men who remain than by those who resign and flee.

An Unneeded Proposal

Commissioners Evans and Dressel express our view when they oppose a proposed City ordinance which would require paving and beautification of all vacant lots now used for auto parking. We don't see any need for it. It would, it appears to us, serve no substantial purpose and yet impose substantial expense. Besides, why didn't the City think of this when it sat there with acres of dusty land one block off Miracle Mile, leased by the City itself for parking? We refer to the Sotile property where a new Publix market is being built.

OFF BEAT By MAURICE LABELLE

By MAURICE LABELLE Waving the red flag of socialized medicine before a doctor is one quick way to raise his ire. But if you really want him to see red, mention the word chiropractor — or better still — do like one Bird Road chiropractor did, erect a sign next to his clinic. The word chiropractor, carelessly used in a doctor's presence, is certain to evoke strong reaction. And if you really wish to inflame the passions —say something even midly favorable about the science (oops) of chiropractic. The M.D. mind is mummified on the subject. This, in a way is unfortunate, because you cannot convince the thousands of persons helped by chiropractors that there is no merit to their theories about the cause of some ailments. Most of the people who have gone to chiropractors did so in desperation after going to a doctor first and getting little or no relief from whatever ailed them. Try, if you can, to argue with these people that something else must have happened and that it was not the chiropractor's art that healed. The grey matter curtain is evidenced in ether ways. A controversy wages within the medical profession about cigarets and cancer and whether the continued use of milk products produces ill effects. One doctor came out recently and said flatly that milk is a poison if used after infancy. This has been met with vehement denials by both the dairy industry and members of the medical profession. Just how much scientific research has been done to set the matter straight? Obviously the knowledge at hand is not conclusive. But doctors —a priori — come up with contradicting conclusions. It would seem that in both cases not enough objective, scientific research has been done, although statistical analysis may support some arguments. Medical men, in a careless moment, will admit that doctors 20 or 30 or 40 years ago knew very little. But now they have all the answers. In some ways they are like the old physics professors who could prove that man could not fly — based on studies of the bumble bee. Or that water was incompressible — because it had not been done. It took a couple of bicycle makers with a bit more vision and objectivity to help make the airplane possible. And it took someone who refused to take the answer in the physics book as final to go ahead and prove that water was indeed compressible. Fortunately, the medical profession does not approach every unknown with the same myopia —otherwise we would not have the fine medical system that we have. Don't be too greatly surprised some day to learn that doctors are using some of the techniques of spinal bone adjustment pioneered by chiropractors. In Europe they reportedly are doing some of this already.

MAILBOX

Editor: It is most heartening to read in The Times, this week, that the City Commissioners of the Gables have endorsed the reforms to the Metro Charter advocated by the Crandon Committee. With the backing recently given by The Times itself it may be that some favorable publicity can be given these much needed reforms to save the county from the series of stupid blunders that seem to be built into Metro, as it is presently constituted. Let us hope that these gentlemen will retain their courage and remain steadfast in the face of the attacks that will be made on them by the daily press. It will be up to all of us to sign, when and if this is handled by petition, and to back our petitions at the polls. WM. WYATT NOLTING 241 Romano Ave.

Lawmakers Licked Again

By PHILLIPS RUSSELL Correspondent The battle over what women might, ought to, and should wear, which began no doubt in the Graden of Eden, has been renewed, with gains and losses on both sides. Various municipalities, boards of aldermen, and police departments have been issuing decrees against the contemporary shoe with its needle-like heel and toe ditto. They maintain, with nobody denying, that the thin and pointed heel of today sticks in pavements, gets caught in cracks, makes holes in rugs and carpets, and is in general an accursed thing. They might as well save their ordinances to aim at something that will give when attacked. These law-making bodies are all men, and men have never understood what guides, molds, and determines civilization as exhibited by pointed heels, pointed toes and bikini bathing suits. The ladies have been known to ignore statutes and stick out their tongues at policemen, but there is a certain graven image before which they annually prostrate themselves with a unanimous and holy motion. Fashion. Any monstruous and unholy thing may be ushered in and accepted without a murmur provided it bears a label stamped at Paris or Rome and is called The Fashion. Annually some mysterious word wafted from an unknown source says this is the fashion, and whether it be heel or toe, hemline or waistline, hair-do or no-go, the world's vast army of women march, wheel, reverse, or halt at the word of command. There is only one thing to be said to law-makers looking on at these maneuvers: Avert your gaze and save your strength.

"Which button did you push?" WALL STREET JOURNAL

Editor's Mailbox

EDITOR: The parking fee goes from $3 to $5 in the City-owned off-street parking lot on Alcazar Avenue. "A drop in revenue was blamed by the City in jacking up the price," but, "other lots will remain at $3." Why are the people on Alcazar being penalized? They have sold more spaces in the Alcazar parking lot than they have. What is behind this? Let's have the truth. We pay to park in the Alcazar parking lot but I still cannot see why people will not be allowed to park on unimproved commercial and industrial lot if the owner does not object. This seems to be a matter between the owner of the lot and the people who park there. I do not think the City Commission has the right to step in. Let's not make more laws just to be broken, and let's not get too grabby. V. O. SUMMER 357 Alcazar Ave. EDITOR'S NOTE: We checked Summer's complaints with City Manager L. W. Robinson Jr. and this was his reply: (The use of the Alcazar Avenue lot warrants a higher fee. The percentage of return on the lot is less than on other lots because of the money the city has spent to buy and improve the lot. (Some of the other lots were the $3 fee prevails are not paved, drained or landscaped. Meter time limits and fees are not universal, why expect unmetered lots to be the same? he asks.)

ART TIMES By Robert S. Hurwitz

By Robert S. Hurwitz This year, local artist and art connoisseur Robert Draper, took control of the Mirell Gallery on Main Highway in Coconut Grove. A revue of his operation is in order. Draper is considered around town as firmly knowledgable in art history, trends and technique. His personal collection of art and artifacts is considerable. His broad sweep of interests carries his art verse from Tarascan to Modern. Mr. Robert, who has his Channel 2 T.V. program, has a real chance to impart some of this knowledge but he permits his too-talkative artist guests to dominate him ... they should not be allowed to. Mirell's walls are ever changing. The fast pace of new shows produces a lot of names, some significant, some of little importance. Draper's permanent for-sale collection of Chimu Carved Men, African Masks, Chinese Frescoes and thousand-year-old Tarascan Figures, are wonderful additions to our artifact scene. Picasso lithos, large Rubens and a newly-acquired Matisse drawing, glamorize the scene. Nellie Bower, former art critic at the News, is wonderfully opinionated as Mirell's Director and Greeter. I dislike but understand the economic fact, that anyone with the price to rent, can stage an exhibit. Too many painters of little repute exhibit, leaving little opportunity for the deserving artists to gain exposure. A good change of pace, is Richard Veit's Photographic exhibit. His exciting effects in the field of creative photography, by the use of a new color process, are worth a look. Unusual lighting in the black and white prints, together with some good examples of dark-room technique, make this art form come alive in his final product. Veit's eye is at work in trying the different and achieving noteworthy results. So you see, a lot is always happening at the Mirell Gallery. There is a lot of art to see, buy and appreciate.

THE Coral Gables TIMES

Established Jan. 15, 1926 Second Class Postage Paid at Miami, Fla. Offices at 364 Sevilla Ave. JOHN T. WATTERS | President ROLFE NEILL | Editor & Publisher