The Coral Gables Times

THE Coral Gables TIMES

CORAL GABLES TIMES Thursday, April 19, 1962 4 THE Coral Gables TIMES Established Jan. 15, 1926 Second Class Postage Published at Paid at Miami, Fla. 364 Sevilla Ave., Coral Gables 34, Fla. JOHN T. WATTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . President ROLFE NEILL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Editor & Publisher

Come Now, Mr. Throne

"It'll never be the same again," lamented letter writer Robert H. Throne on these pages the other Thursday. He looked ahead 10 years and dejectedly saw this future for the Gables: "Commercial interests, stores, newspapers, builders, filling stations, real estate investors — they all pull for more people, more business, more traffic, more activity — more, more, more." And he concluded: "Too bad; it used to be such a nice, quiet beautiful city!" Mr. Throne seems prone to a habit quite human albeit a bit selfish, as we understand it. What he says, in effect, is now that you and I are here, let's keep the others out. It would be nice indeed if we could continue to enjoy the things we have, retain a village atmosphere and not need to grow. But mankind needs to grow. He must change. He must continually be reshaping his environment. This is not the evil. The evil is when we plan poorly, when we let private or corporate greed deflect us from wise land use, when we neglect the aesthetic side of our community, when we let commercial interests get into imbalance. Yes, Mr. Throne, things will be changed 10 years from now. If they were not, our city would be a long way toward dead. We must meet the task of making our town continue to serve us and be a beautiful place in which to live and work. Singing a song of dirge won't get the job done.

They May Be Right

Some owners in Sunrise Harbour asked the City Commission Tuesday to consider setting up a permanent department which would concern itself with planning. Their reason is personal and immediate: The single-family dwellings there are faced with a concentration of apartment buildings — too many, in their estimation. The point they make appears a wise one to us. It is buttressed by the fact that the City is right now spending thousands of dollars for a land use study, which is just another name for planning. Given a professional staff for this type of work and operated by our municipal government, we might be spared some of the agonies we now go through many times a year relative to wise use of land. We aren't sure but what the City Commission may have been a little too lenient in permitting a dozen more apartments than originally planned on two lots in Sunrise Harbour. However, we like what seems to be the commissioners' general approach, which is one of restricting housing concentration on too little land. And this is only fair to adjoining homeowners for afterall it is they who make Sunrise Harbour the desirable place to live that it is. Were it given over to apartments, much of its attractiveness would be lost.

This One's for Harry

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it: "An institution is the lengthened shadow of one man." Happily, the shadow cast by Harry Rath in the 12 years he has directed Coral Gables High School has been one which has made that educational facility into one of the nation's finest. Rath's own philosophy was stated on our front page last week: "I try to make the students proud to be eggheads." He's done it, too. Even the middlin' grade student is proud of the academic record of his school. This is but proof that when emphasis is placed on the right goals, students will direct themselves there. A high school does not have to be reduced only to an organized club for athletic competition and extracurricular frolic. Harry Rath has never let his eye stray from the main chance or the main mission. He'll retire in June. Coral Gables High School has been fortunate in its formative years to have his imprint on it.

MAILBOX

EDITOR: In today's belated hassle over air pollution here everyone seems to overlook the real cause of this blight. The Wall Street Journal of April 24, 1961 points the finger at the major agency of air pollution with the finding that "automobile engine fumes cause 96 per cent of the carbon monoxides, 71 per cent of the hydrocarbon, and 60 per cent of the nitrogen oxides, which form the smog in our cities today." An article in the Toronto Financial Post dated Aug. 13, 1960, said: "On smoggy nights in Toronto, doctors at the sick children hospitals expect a rush of emergency patients, some of whom will die. They are the victims of air pollution." And the Ontario Committee on Air Pollution states in its report: "We believe there is ample authority to justify the statement that air pollution is a major cause of lung cancer." In the 10 years of 1950 through 1959 the population of Dade County grew from 495 thousand to 917 thousand — up almost 100 per cent. But the number of motor vehicles registered on our streets and highways grew faster; from 220 thousand in 1950 to 492 thousand in 1960, up almost 125 per cent. If the number of motor vehicles retains their same rate of growth, we will have over a million cars, trucks, and buses on our streets in 1970 — not including the millions of out-of-state vehicles that pour in here during the winter season. Now here in Miami, despite the Atlantic Ocean's promise of a deliverig breeze, in the summer doldrums, when very little air is stirring in any direction, it would be interesting to take an oxygen count, say at the corner of Miami Avenue and Flagler, and the figures might alarm us. And never forget this condition is going to get worse. At present there are no agencies set up to count our air pollution and if our downtown business people don't wake up, air pollution may very well be the "third strike" in their day-to-day struggle for survival. Indeed, it may prove more disastrous than our heavy Cuban influx; and all that would be needed to increase the unusual evacuation now taking place would be the erection of that refinery in South Dade. We could then give the land back to the Seminoles, if they would take it. MURRAY McDONALD 1930 NW 4th St.

Finally, a Back Up to the Pitch

By PHILLIPS RUSSELL It was quite surprising a few days ago to hear a visitor from abroad praising the courtesy with which he was received at an American port of entry. This is a change for which we must thank the recently established Travel Bureau of the Department of Commerce, where doubtless it has been realized that indifference or ill-temper on the part of customs or immigration employes can nullify all the efforts of the government to encourage tourism from the older worlds on the other side of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In other days one's arrival at an American port was a detestable ordeal. The citizen received only a degree of better treatment than the foreigner. Whether he was a native or a visitor he was liable to encounter delay, indifference, impudence, bad manners, the needless ransacking of one's belongings, and other manifestations of a haughty and petty bureaucracy. This was particularly true if he traveled in other than first class, while if he was a newly arrived immigrant he was liable to feel the teeth of 50 sharks. In short, an open mockery was made of the Statue of Liberty, of Emma Lazarus' poem depicting a nation holding out its arms to Europe's poor, and even to the provisions of the U.S. Constitution. If courtesy and promptness are now to prevail at U.S. ports, we can expect the propaganda in behalf of inexpensive tours from abroad to take effect and a partial brake to be thus applied to the drain of U.S. gold to supposedly weaker countries.

How to Succeed Today

Success, today, in many areas requires more effort than in the past. Competition today is stiffer, students are smarter, they work harder and are stronger. I was talking with a very important citizen about the success of Coral Gables High School and the outstanding achievements of its pupils. This man recalled the tremendous changes that have occurred in just 25 years. When he was a senior in high school he won his school and county championships by high jumping 5'10". Today, one has to be able to jump 6'4" to be a winner. This man was the state high school champion in shot-put, throwing a 12 lb. shot 45 feet. Today, one has to throw the shot 55 feet to win. Only a few years ago, the state champion in pole-vaulting cleared the bar at 11 feet. Today, to be in the finals you must be able to clear 13'5". In the hundred yard dash 10.8 seconds used to win. Today 9.7 is necessary. I could go on. The scores of our College Board Examinations go up year after year, our academic requirements to the National Honor Society are higher. I can remember the time when 3.0 was the average that one had to have to get into our National Honor Society. This particular group taken in today had a minimum of 3.7 average . . . In fact, the achievement in every department in our school is far superior to what it was just 10 years ago. Yes, today one has to be better than ever before, but, students of Gables High, I caution you to take our excellent school, our superior teachers and reputation for granted. All areas of the United States and all high schools are not in our class. The National picture is a gloomy one. Your Federal Government is so concerned over the problems we have to face because of automation, school drop-outs and lack of appreciation for the importance of education that $430 million has just been appropriated for special classes to educate the unemployed people in the United States. Would you believe and do you think your parents would believe that in the United States today, the richest nation in the world, there are 3 million adults who cannot read the label on a bottle of medicine or who cannot read a help-wanted ad, or who cannot read the report cards of their children? Would you believe that in the United States, education is so unappreciated that today there are 8 million young men and women under the age of 25 who have not gone beyond the 5th grade? One third of the nation's high school students never graduate. Even worse, there are 62 million adults who never completed high school. The education picture is truly serious. The State of West Virginia has just passed a bill, the first in our nation's history, requiring special occupational training for all unemployed boys leaving school without a high school diploma. Again, National Honor Society scholars, I congratulate you for your example and offer a fervent hope that all of the students of Gables High will strive to fulfill their patriotic obligation by getting the most out of the academic advantages that Coral Gables High has to offer. Remember our saying: "You can't stay on top by coasting."

The following are excerpts of a speech given by Harry Rath, principal of Coral Gables High School, to the members of the National Honor Society.

"I go to an old-fashioned school -- We're not allowed to hit the teacher."