The Coral Gables Times

Thursday, October 4, 1962, page 4 (of 24)

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THE Coral Gables TIMES

Established Jan. 15, 1926 Second Class Postage Published at Paid at Miami, Fla. 364 Sevilla Ave., Coral Gables 34, Fla. Subscriptions: $4.20 year by mail anywhere in the U.S.A.

How to Save $11,359 By Really Trying

The most convincing case we've seen made for closing down the Gables Municipal Court is fresh made by the City itself. It's in the form of the three-month report for the period ended Aug. 31. The report shows that our little municipal court, held at the Police Station courtroom, handled 131 cases for the summer months of June, July and August. Not many Gableites in court, you say? You bet there weren't. Not many of even those 131 cases were our own citizens. In fact, only 39 of them were. That's 29%. Now that Metro wants to steal away the court they gave us, we must act with vigilance to see that that court remains here for the convenience of our citizens, if it is shown that enough of them are ticketed in the community and therefore normally would appear locally. (Metro Judge Snowden says many Gableites are ticketed outside and therefore go elsewhere to trial anyway.) But back to our own municipal court: To run a court for the convenience of 29% of its defendants-and this numbering only 39 people out of a three month period -well, this is unnecessary on the face of it. It costs money-$11,359 to be exact for this year. What City Commissioner will be leader enough to face up to it?

Mother Hubbard Looked In the Cupboard

What City Hall has been reluctant to admit has been admitted for it: It does not have all the figures it should have on the operation of Biltmore Golf Course. Even now, its accountants still are gathering data. There is something slack somewhere in the procedures of the counting house that an operation involving a third of a million dollars yearly should take so long to be gathered on paper. Actually, it is questionable that very much running around should have been needed to begin with; are all City concessions handled with as little care on bookkeeping details? The current City Commission probably did not have any reason to know financial homework was not being kept up until it was called to their attention. However, this was done at least three months ago. It is past time, we believe, when matters should have been satisfactorily toted. The contract with Mr. Tinder at Biltmore is up for renewal next month. The facts for a decision should already be at hand.

EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS by Rolfe Neill

A Stumper This I came across in the Hot Shoppe on South Dixie Highway: Three teenagers ordered three hot dogs. Two of the three took mustard; two took catsup; and two took relish. One that took no relish took no catsup, and the one that took no catsup took no mustard. Question: What did each have on his hot dog? * * * 60-Second Review A book you'll want to read is "Some of My Best Friends . . ." which takes its title from the expression, ". . . are Jews." It is by Benjamin R. Epstein and Arnold Forster. Here, in documented form, are a number of anecdotal histories of Jewish discrimination (and counterattack). Discussed are the Camelback Inn in Phoenix; the Grosse Point, Mich., point system for keeping out Jews and others; the Scarsdale golf club incident etc. The book is interesting for this information, if for no other. However, in it all is a message and it's a proposition not oft stated. It is this: No man has the right to be prejudiced against a group of people. The mere act of prejudice, the authors maintain, is morally unfair because the individual feeling this way seeks to raise his own status at the expense of someone else. The authors hit, then, at what is in most peoples' minds is an unquestioned "right": The "right" to be prejudiced. Read "Some of My Best Friends . . ." and see if you still feel the same way. * * * Architecture At Biltmore Golf Course Tuesday I was looking at the old Biltmore Hotel. The year "1925" stands out boldly as to the building's origin and I was made to think of Rodney Miller and his two construction gangs racing one another up each half of the building. But what I went on to think was, How different the Coral Gables we are building today is from the architecture of this magnificent old building. Then I looked across to Fred Cole's lovely Congregational church. It, too, has the charm of good design. The most recent building of distinction put up here, also is a church, Granada Presbyterian. As for today, we seem caught up in an orgy of functionalism. It's all glass & aluminum and minimum cost. The truth is, in our Gables commercial buildings, at least, we are losing the distinctiveness of architecture that gives us so much of our interesting appearance. Even so grand a building as Ed Rogers' seven-story affair for Gulf-modern as it is-lacks the enduring beauty of timeless architecture. I hope that the next big building constructed here - our new Library, for instance -will possess the qualities of some of our older structures. For all their dated appearances, they make you look again and again with a glad eye. * * * Lundeen Visit When I heard that Art Lundeen was in Doctors' Hospital in traction, my sympathies went out. Then Tuesday night I visited him; now I'm not so sure I wouldn't like to trade places. When I entered room 268, banker Lundeen was in bed watching television as the Dodgers were rallying against the Giants. On one side was a box of Pangburn's chocolates his wife had brought. I suspected he would have such tomes as "Money and Banking" at his bedside but instead I saw books such as ones by H. Allen Smith. If this weren't enough, he told me the doctor insisted that he stay abed through the World Series. P.S.: Despite the delicious sound of all these arrangements, Art is in traction for a back ailment and it's no joy ride.

FACES IN OUR TOWN by INK

Mrs. Joseph PERENO, Jr. IS ACTUALLY A COWBOY'S WIFE, HER HUSBAND IS IN THE CATTLE BUSINESS. MRS. PERENO, JOAN, WAS BORN IN MIAMI AND WENT TO MIAMI SENIOR HIGH. JOAN IS PRESIDENT OF THE CORAL GABLES JUNIOR WOMEN'S CLUB, A SUBSTITUTE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER, AND A PATRON OF THE MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND NATURAL HISTORY. THE PERENO'S HAVE THE GIRLS; CHRISTINE 10, JANICE 8 AND ANNETTE 7 YEARS.

MAILBOX

EDITOR: What is the answer? Employed by the city is a city manager and a Zoning Department head who have been Coral Gables fixtures since most of us can recall. Why were they passed over and Rader hired to make a controversial report that is 10 years too late. It omits any reference to the squalid Negro section which is an open suppurating sore in The City Beautiful! I'm proud of our fine homes but just passing through it gives me the shudders. I don't know what you would do if you were confined to a ghetto without sewerage or a safe place for my children to play; as for me I'd do a Ghandi - and march down to City Hall every meeting until I had a place where my children didn't have to be fenced in between the railroad tracks and dear old DIXIE Highway. LEE LINCOLN 4855 Ponce de Leon

Police Losing Men Because of Low Pay

By J. EDGAR HOOVER FBI Director Low pay and financial insecurity are bleeding law enforcement of vital manpower sorely needed in the fight against the Nation's alarming crime problem. Daily, throughout the country, responsible career-minded officers resign because of meager wages insufficient to afford their families a decent standard of living. Outstanding police applicants turn elsewhere for more lucrative jobs. This is a deplorable condition - a condition which tends to undermine the very concept of law and order. It is a reflection on a society which enjoys the highest economic standing in the world, and it denotes a lack of sound reasoning on the part of community leaders. Many localities have long since resolved these matters in a commendable manner. Others have waited, taking action only when the injustice is highlighted by unfortunate circumstances. Some months ago one officer was critically wounded by a shotgun blast fired at point-blank range by a fugitive whom he was arresting. Although injured in the line of duty, this policeman was not eligible for sick pay, and under regulations governing such incidents, his pay was cut to $35 per week during his hospitalization and recovery. An occurrence such as this, labeled editorially by a local newspaper as a "disgrace" and "a grave shortcoming in citizen responsibility," needs no elaboration. Effective law enforcement is synonymous with progressive community growth. It is not a commodity for political bartering; nor can it be achieved with cut-rate financial support. Currently, the average monthly earnings of firemen are considerably higher than those of full-time employes involved in police protection in local governments. In many instances a young person with stenographic ability has earning power equal to, if not greater than, a police officer. There is no quick formula for gaining experience in police work, and few departments can afford to lose seasoned veterans to better paying jobs. The damage is abundantly clear. It saps the strength of an agency and spreads experienced manpower too thinly for adequate public protection. In dealing with the forces of crime, a little short-sightedness goes a long way. There is something drastically wrong with a policy which daily sends an officer onto the street with incomplete training, insufficient assistance, and inadequate financial security. Obviously, neither he nor the public benefits from such a practice. It would be tragic indeed if this momentum were lost because of the failure to provide proper remuneration for qualified personnel.

OFF BEAT by Maurice Labelle

Pamphleteers have fallen into disrepute again. Now it's the Boy Scouts peddling anti-Communists propaganda with a strong right wing flavor. (There are such things as left wing anti-anti-antis). Haven't seen the stuff, but if it's as bad as depicted and names names, I would imagine a multiplicity of libel suits are on the way. We'll see. Rev. Fred E. Stinson, pastor of Kendall Methodist Church, is particularly unhappy with the pan.phleteers. He says they are panic pushers peddling pernicious, pessimistic propaganda, which is a lot of alliteration, even for Rev. Stinson. Ironically, if hadn't been for a first class pamphleteer named Tom Paine, Rev. Stinson and the rest of us might be British, French or Spanish subjects, or something. A lot of history books conveniently leave out Tom because he was the radical nut of his day - as ultra or far out as anyone today. But more than casual knowledge of our Revolutionary period reveals that Payne's rabbid writings in favor of freedom kept the war going after the tender and faint-hearted had given up. He had a bit of military assistance for a never-say-die conservative by the name of Washington. Let's not be so hard on pamphleteers. Use your wastebasket. You don't have to read them. If they violate the law, let the authorities or the offended take the proper course - in court. As for the BS of A distributing the stuff, that's another matter. One argument at a time.