Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 28, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 June 1933 — Page 4
PAGE 4
The Indianapolis Times (A tCRIPI’g.IIOfVABIJ KtWSFIPXB ) ROY W. HOWARD . President TALCOTT POWELL . Editor EARL D. BAKER ...... Business Manager I’hono—Riley 6551
Member of United Pres*. Rerippx - Howard Newspaper Alliance, Newspaper Enterprise Association. Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulations. Owned and published daily (emept Sunday) by The Indianapolis Times Publishing Cos., 214-220 West Maryland street, Indianapolis. Ind. in Marion county. 2 cents a copy; elsewhere, 3 cents—delivered by carrier. 12 cent* a week. Mail subscription rates In Indiana. $3 a year; outside of Indiana, 65 cents a month.
*'•'>< • *• o +AB
Od Ll'jht and the People tV</| find Their Own TTov
TUESDAY. JUNE 13, 1933
LOOPHOLES IN THE LAW MpHE income tax law in the United States represented the successful culmination of a long effort on the part of liberals to subject to taxation the new sources of wealth produced by industrial and finance capitalism. The vested interests fought long and bitterly, but they could not stem the tide of growing revolt and progressivism. which culminated in the period of the ratification of the income tax amendment. Therefore, the next best thing was to shape and administer the income tax law so that it would be as favorable as possible to the wealthy. This has been achieved through the capital gains and losses provision, the admission of a large group of tax exempt securities, the supreme court decision that stock dividends can not be legally taxed, the failure to tax the rich in proportion to their actual capacity to pay, and the generosity of Mr. Mellon and others in refunding income taxes paid by the very wealthy. The overwhelming majority of expert opinion is against the validity or equity of the capital gains and losses provision of the income tax law. This provision makes it possible, for example, to tax the profits made in stock deals and to deduct from current taxable income any losses contracted in the sale of stocks (restricted in details by the law). This is an unsound taxation principle, because it Invites the wealthy to obscure their losses, a process in which they are given unusual competence and success through employment of expensive lawyers. Moreover, it means that in periods of depression, when governmental expenditures are high and revenue is needed specially, the proceeds of the income tax fail off notably. Great money masters like Morgan can avoid paying any income tax whatever at the very time when the government most needs their money. In short, capital losses never should be allowed as a deduction from income tax liability, while capital gains should be reached and taxed by means other than the income tax—for example, by a property tax, an unearned increment tax, or an increment property tax. Great Britain, save for a moment during the World war, never permitted the capital gains and losses principle, and France has stood with her. Germany admitted the principle in 1920, but abolished it in 1925. The trend is decisively against it, in both theory and practice. Inasmuch as our present income tax system is legalized by a constitutional amendment. the supreme court could not set it aside, as it did in the Pollock case in 1895. But it modified it in part through the decision that stock dividends can not be taxed legally in this manner. ' This favors the wealthy, since the corporations dominated by them can divert part of their cash dividends into stock dividends. Another loophole is the existence of a large body of tax-exempt securities. There are in all about $33,090,000,000 worth of securities, wholly or partly exempt from federal taxation. Os this amount, some $20,500,000,000 is wholly exempt from both the normal income tax and the surtax. In addition, about $12,388,000,000 is exempt from the normal income tax, but not from the surtax. These tax-exempt securities represent a definite challenge to a principle of the income tax. As Dr. Charles O. Hardy observes: ‘ Where the progressive income tax is the expression of a thoroughly modern tendency, the tax-exempt security is. to a large extent, a relic of the past.” These tax-exempt securities constitute bonds of the states and subsidiary divisions thereof, bonds issued by the federal government and its possessions, and bonds issued under provisions of the federal farm loan act. Experts, such as Professor Seligman, estimate that the federal government loses about $300,000,000 annually in revenue as a result of the exemption of these securities. The exemption of state and local bonds is a matter of constitutional rights. The exemption of the federal bonds is simply a matter of statute law and could be altered quickly. In spite of rather high surtax rates for larger incomes, the rich never have been taxed in proportion to their actual capacity to pay under our income tax law, with the possible exception of a short time during the World war. Moreover, since ,1917, no less than $1,271,000,000 has been returned in income tax refunds. While it is not. necessary to assume, as some radicals do, that every cent of this was a dishonest return to the rich, yet there is no reason to doubt the fact that a considerable part of this gigantic refund represented special favoritism to the very wealthy. WHY HALF AND HALF? IF the public will get as excited about the Morgan control of industry as the Morgan escape from income tax payments, the country can throw off the Morgan dictatorship. The income tax story told in the senate hearings naturally infuriated the little taxpayers, but it hardly was a surprise to those familiar with the many loopholes in the tax laws. Clearly the fault is not so much with the Morgans as with congress and the country, which so long have been satisfied with a tax system which snatches the back of the rich man and crushes the poor man. The significant fact is not that the Morgans exploited the tax set up for their own profit, but that we were dubs enough to let thei do it. The same is true of Morgan control of industry. It is silly to blame Mr. Morgan for wielding economic power greater than that of any king. Mr. Morgan and the private banks would have been regulated and restrained by
government long ago If American citizens had desired. For at least twenty years since the Pujo expose, the public has known that the House of Morgan, through interlocking business and bank directorates, and a spider web of patronage. dominates American life. But the public has not cared. Mr. Morgan will remain an emperor just so long as the public wishes to pay tribute to him, but no longer. The extent of Morgan control was shown in part by the statement of the senate committee Monday. Morgan partners are directors of eighty-nine corporations and banks, with assets of more than $20,000,000,000. These eighty-nine Morgan corporationsand banks also have 537 nonpartner directors, who, in turn, sene on the boards of 2.305 other companies. Many of these i.onpartner directors are on the Morgan list of industrial and political leaders for special favors in bargain loans. Faced by this complicated and far-reach-ing financial empire, the senate committee has recessed its hearings for a few weeks to permit further preparation and investigation. The committee proposes, before it finishes, to give the American public a fairly complete picture of the Morgan machine and the way it operates. Then the public, which is responsible for the present lack of effective laws and regulation, can decide whether this country is to remain half free and half Morgan.
HIS CREDIT IS GOOD /CALAMITY howlers to the contrary, Uncle Sam’s credit is just about 500 per cent good. Without benefit of the much-discussed gold clause, the government’s $1,000,000,000 security issue just has been oversubscribed fivefold. The treasury’s books were open only three days, yet returns from the Federal Reserve banks Indicate that subscriptions totaled more than $5,000,000,000, many in amounts of less than SIO,OOO. Interesting is the fact that half of the issue is in notes bearing only 27 k per cent interest and $400,000,000 is in nine-month certificates of per cent interest. Contrast this with the condition of March 1, when $75,000,000 worth of ninety-three-day treasury bills were offered at an average rate of 4.25 per cent interest, and only $94,101,000 worth were subscribed. The present happy credit position is due to three circumstances. The first is our large gold reserve of more than $4,000,000,000, which has been conserved by the government’s action in going off the gold standard. The second is the insistence by the administration that the budget be balanced, and its refusal to take the easy but perilous paths of uncontrolled currency inflation. The third is a general confidence in the industrial recovery policies of President Roosevelt and the nation’s faith in his statesmanship. The popular response to this latest security issue gives assurance that the great public works program will be financed easily. It also gives rise to the hope that a portion of the $8,000,000,000 in Liberty loans can be refunded at interest rates considerably )<jwer than the to 4 per cent we now pas'. LIBERTY FOR LIBERIA TJEACE organizations and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People are protesting the state department’s reported policy of forcing an American adviser upon the Liberian government. The protests are in order. The United States government already has enough trouble at home and abroad without embarking on anew venture in imperialism. The Firestone loan and concession should not put the Wasihngton government in the position of asking special privileges in Liberia, or of exercising there any kind of dictatorship, open or disguised. Liberia has asked the League of Nations committee, which is meeting in London with an American representative, to name as chief foreign adviser for Liberia a citizen of some nation which neither has nor seeks Liberian concessions. That is a reasonable request. It should rule out not only the United States, but also Great Britain and France and the other imperialistic powers.
SQUARE DEAL FOR THE TOILER TUST why any one should fear that the new industrial control bill will give organized labor too much of a break is something hard to understand. To be sure, it has been asserted that under certain interpretation of the law every factory in the land could be made into a closed shop. But it ought to be obvious that a closed shop of the kind contemplated here is quite unlike the closed shop as we have known it in the past. Besides, if American employers can be frightened by the specter of a closed shop after all the other terrors they have faced in the last three years, their nerves must have suffered more than any one has supposed. The American laboring man needs a break of some kind very badly. During the depression he has been most amazingly patient. It used to be said, back in the old boom days, that he would get rambunctious and start breaking things if the industrial machine ever slowed down. Ever since the 1929 stock market crash, he has been disproving this prediction. In the face of swiftly contracting wage scales and lengthening breadlines he has sat tight, willing to wait for the turning, ignoring the radical‘agitators who would have turned his predicament to their own advantage, displaying a quiet endurance and an inherent conservatism that have been nothing less than amazing. By so doing he has given us every reason to expect that he will not abuse the privilege which the industrial control bill is going to bring him. But aside from those considerations, there is another ground on which labor’s new charter of power can be defended. At this moment a shift in our whole form of government seems to be taking place; a shift which carries over into the industrial and financial fields those standards of freedom and democracy which we have always cherished in the political realm. An industrial law which sets up a series of labor -controlled organizations to share in
the government of industry is no more than a logical part of that shift. We have today a very fair chance to make our democracy more truly effective than it has been in a century. We can not do it if we follow the lead of tories to whom organized labor is anathema. The Industrial control law is a good thing, not in spite of its concessions to organized labor, but because of them. RECOVERY ON THE WAY A BUSINESS man who wondered just how much real substance there was behind the current rise in industrial stock prices set out recently on a tour of inspection of various factories. He found a number of big middle western plants working at or near capacity for the t first time in several years; and at last he encountered a steel plant working three eighthour shifts. , “I asked what they were making,” he says, and I found out they were making barbed wire—making all of it they could. The farmers are beginning to buy it, in quantity, for the first time in many months. For a long time they have been letting their fences go unrepaired. Now they are coming into the market again—and the barbed wire business is good.” This little anecdote seems to reflect a general situation which offers one of the most encouraging developments of the year. PUZZLING THOSE RUSSIANS r T~'HAT cablegram sent to Jimmy Mattern in Russia by friends in his home town of San Angelo, Tex., seems to have caused Soviet officials at Moscow a good deal of perfectly natural bewilderment. In itself, the message was simple enough. It said, "Attaboy, Jimmy,” and it was signed, "San Angelo.” But it puzzled the serious commissars. “Attaboy”—ln what Russian-English dictionary will you find a definition of that cryptic word? And the signature, "San Angelo”; what could that mean, and why? Obviously, the whole thing might be a code message involving a deeply-hidden plot. “Attaboy Jimmy—San Angelo”; international secrets have been given away in words less mysterious than.those. Soviet Russia’s introduction to American slang is probably a thing that the Moscow officials will shake their heads over for a long time. London economic conference is going to have a bar seventy feet long, serving drinks of sixty-six nations to thirsty delegates. That, at least, should keep the delegates in good spirits. University professor says it’s dangerous for man to marry after 30. How about before? Strangely enough, the government’s penalties for gold hoarding don’t seem to be deterring the gold diggers one bit. King George is reported to have lost weight during his recent illness. Another case of the declining British pound? Unemployed St. Louis shoemaker is writing an opera which, probably, will contain some very sole-ful music. Movie couple married in Havana last January will be married all over again in Hollywood in near future. Probably the newspaper photographers weren’t on hand at the first ceremony. Secretary Woodin says Americans need music to give them courage. Well, haven’t we been whistling for three years to keep it up?
M.E.TracySays:
ONCE more we find congress at loggerheads with the President. Patronage :s the secret. Legislators are vastly more interested in making themselves solid with the party than in supporting a sound public policy. First, they want a distribution of jobs to reward their henchmen. Second, they want measures by which they can prove that they are able to serve groups and cliques of constituents. Having clothed the President with emergency powers, senators and representatives feel that the time has come to replenish the feedbag. It is the same old spoils system at work in the same old way, and the spoils system simply does not click with efficient government. The average citizen is not impressed with the scramble for jobs that ensues after every change of administration. He does not believe that it helps him in any way or that it tends to improve public service. On the other hand, he is inclined to suspect that it has a great deal to do with the constantly increasing expense of government and the growing inability of public officials to maintain order. a a a THE average citizen associates graft, racketeering, and incompetence with the fact that public service has become subordinate to politics and that many officials are far more interested in strengthening their party than in doing what is best for nation, state, or city. This condition exists not only with regard to the federal government, but to every form of local government. States, cities, and towns are handicapped by the persistent efforts of leaders to build up political machines and maintain organizations through a clever distribution of patronage, regardless of its effect on the taxpayer. In New York City, for instance, a Tammanycontrolled administration is levying unjust and unprecedented taxes rather than put its henchmen off the pay roll. The issue is not one of adequate service to the city, but of hired help for the party. a a a THOUGH the country's outstanding example. New York is not exceptional in this respect. By willfully perverting the privileges of democracy, we Americans have succeeded in developing a loyalty to the party, the machine, the crowd in control, which overshadows civic consciousness. and have reached a point where anything like thorough-going economy or honest law enforcement is well nigh impossible. Such attitude explains the power exercised by organized minorities, by small blocs of voters that can be depended on, by large contributers to the campaign fund, by ward heelers and local bosses. ' The resultant confusion, incompetence, and discontent constitute our gravest peril. For the first time in American history, large numbers of people openly are wondering whether radical changes in our form of government are not desirable. and while economic conditions furnish the excuse, an obvious breakdown of civic consciousness is the real cause. The demand for what commonly is called “a business administration,” as illustrated by ‘ city managers, commissions, and more executive power, is rooted in a belief that politics has grown too cheap to be trusted.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
(Times readers are invited to express their views in these columns. Make your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to 250 words or less.) By William E. Henry, Seattle Librarian Emeritus. Dear Governor McNutt—l am sure you are busy with the affairs of the state in a very perplexing period, but may I have a minute of your time? I am a Hoosier by birth and education, and I devoted more than twenty years to Indiana educational institutions. I was connected with the state university, Franklin college and the state library in which I served as head librarian from 1897 to 1906, when I was called to a position in the University of Washington, but I have kept fairly in touch with the Indiana library since I left the state. I had the honor of being the first state librarian elected without consideration of partisan political affiiliations. From 1897 to date, that library ha,s been conducted by persons educationally fitted for library service until the Indiana state library has become one of the most efficient and noted in the United States. Just yesterday a report came tome, not from the state library itself, but from friends in Indiana interested in the state library as a great educational institution, that: “Governor Paul McNutt is discharging staff members with library training and experience and replacing them with persons chosen because of party affiliations.” From what I have heard of the admirable and efficient service which you have rendered to the people of the state in your work in the university and elsewhere, it seems to me impossible that a man with such capacity as you have exhibited should advise such plans as here above indicated, which practically will undo the work and the spirit cf all that has been accomplished in
A FRENCHMAN, discussing the luncheon habits of people in various parts of the world, recently characterized Americans as tachyphages, or rapid eaters, because he had noticed that they seldom take the time for properly chewing and swallowing their food, particularly at the luncheon period. The newspapers have carried items relative to the speed with which President Roosevelt eats his luncheon, often at his desk, and editorial writers have warned against the risk of physical indigestion and mental exhaustion for the sake of saving a few paltry minutes at mid-day. In this they probably are right. One statement says Mr. Roosevelt’s luncheon usually requires forty-five minutes. If he takes forty-five minutes to eat luncheor), he probably is taking more time than most Americans. Most offices and plants allow a total of forty-five minutes for the luncheon period, during which employes have to go to a restaurant or restroom and eat the luncheon, and then come back. Os late, there has been a tendency to cut down on the size of luncheon and to make the evening dinner the main meal of the dhy. Most American men eat a fairly hearty breakfast, including fruit,
WE had talked about the different sorts’ of things that shocked different sorts of people, each trying to recall what had startled her most in recent years. We had recited the lists, from the invasion of Manchuria, through the Lindbergh kidnaping to the bank moratorium, when the mother of the hostesss spoke up: “The most shocking thing I ever have read,” she said, “was an item appearing more than a year ago, which said that because school children in Los Angeles never had seen a cow, one was being brought to the schools for exhibition purposes.” Come to think of it, that was a bit of news to shock, as it shows us how many leagues away frdm naturalness our urban civilization has taken us. We have had multitudes of tributes both to the dog and the horse, who are called man's best friends.
SeOWQGDIN SAYS-U/HAT TH£ COUNTRY NEEDS IS MUSiC ! -NEv-S NOTE. *\ G\VE /V/t t O 1 A 0 *# „ \- \ \'\ Y °V // . A G AY'/ /// <% \ X BY/s y />* \\\ ! B®==^ • | VI MC /Vo PICT Ulfs vsk//xf’cA- ’’’ ME UPON f —s * VOOR O'V (i -pj I'—i, , im
The Message Center
Don’t Rush Through Your Luncheon
A Woman’s Viewpoint
Sing Something Simple!
Leave It to U. S. By R. F. Paine. “TF the handful of New York X men who control the vast network of power lines and power plants linked together through United Corporation should decide to shut down their motors—stop service suddenly—the entire nation would be demoralized. Manufacturing plants would close, trains would stop running, food supplies would run short, city dwellers would be left helpless. It would be interesting to see what the government could do about a situation like this.” So says your interesting Washington correspondent, Ruth Finney. Well, government’s action in such a crisis would be not only interesting, but mighty reformatory. There would be nothing for government to do but conscript that “vast network,” just as it conscripts our best young men in war crisis. It would kick out the obstreperous management, without disturbance of the body of workers of the power lines and plants. Such action surely would suggest radical reform to other mighty, monopolistic corporations. Indeed, some of the propositions before the present congress aim at exactly such action. Public expose of “invisible governmment” by the Morgan crowd “gives light and the people (the government) will find their own way.” the state library in the last thirtysix years. Such a calamity not only will undo the efficient work of thirty-six years, but it will be condemned by the educated and thoughful people of Indiana and the entire library world. The number of staff in any one library is so extremely small that
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Editor Journal of the American Medical Association of Hygeia, the Health Magazine. sometimes cereal, eggs, toast and coffee, and not infrequently bacon or sausages. With such a breakfast and with a dinner including soup, meat, two vegetables, salad, coffee or tea, and dessert, the luncheon need merely include something light as a sandwich, fruit, and a beverage. Many a competent business man takes only a glass of milk and a biscuit for his noonday luncheon. This does not mean, however, that the time for luncheon should be limited to the time necessary for consumption of a glass of milk and a biscuit. The extra time at luncheon should be spent in a complete rest from the usual activities of the day; that is to say, either in lying flat with the eyes closed, or in some recreation, such as a walk in the outdoors, unimportant conversation, or any similar diversion. Unfortunately, with 4he majority of Americans, luncheon has become a time for attending to business not attended to in the office. Before the chief course comes on, one lays down psychologically a
BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON
Humanity, however, could give up both easier than it could do without the humblest and most useful beast —the cow. a a a BECAUSE it would be impossible to improve upon the appreciation to her by Frank Lloyd Wright, which appears in his superb autobiography. I copy it here. “Has any one sung the song of the calf-bearing, milk-flowing, cudchewing, tail-switching, slow-moving cow, with the fragrant breath and the beautiful eyes, the well-behaved, the necessary cow? “She is the dairy farm, the wealth of states, the health of nations. “How many trusties and lusties besides her lawful calf have pulled away at her teats these thousands of years, until the streams flowing from them would float fleets of bat-
their force is almost zero in any political controversy. We can not afford to injure a good institution for all the force these few could exert in a political vote. I speak strongly and plainly because of my Interest in educational work in the state which I served until I was beyond my 40th year. At the State Teachers college, the State university, and Franklin college, and nine years in the State Library. If the report that came to me as to changes being made in the State Library of Indiana is true, I most positively protest, and I sincerely trust that intelligent light may break upon the situation and the library may be preserved from partisan politics.
So They Say
Certainly, I’ll marry again when and if I ever meet another man with whom I can share love, companionship and understanding.— Peggy Hopkins Joyce, many times wed. Every treaty is holy, but no treaty (s eternal.—Prime Minister MacDonald of Great Britain. Count that day lost whose descending sun Views no message from the President come. —Congressman U. S. Guyer of Kansas, in lyrical mood. May the seven plagues of Egypt fall upon whoever revolts against the country—General Augusto Sandino, former Nicaraguan rebel. Life is an end in itself and the only question as to whether it is worth living is whether you have had enough of it.—Oliver" Wendell Holmes, former supreme court justice.
pleasant frame of mind; between the next two courses one introduces insidiously the real reason for having the luncheon, and just before the dessert one leads up to the final proposition to be discussesd. After the dessert, when there is a pleasant feeling of satiation, the prospect is induced to smoke a fairly heavy 7 cigar and, in those circumstances, can easily be brought to sign the papers. From the point of view of health, luncheons mixed with business are not recommended. The psychology of digestion is alsomst as important as its physiology. A feeling of appetite brings about a flow of the gastric juice, a period of rest gives a proper time for relaxation and recovery from exhaustion, both of the brain and of the muscle cells. A walk in the outdoors means oxygenation of the blood, and perhaps aids digestion. It would not be unusual, however, if the President of the United States weakened his digestion in attending to business of the government during luncheon. The job, as revealed by the lives of men who have held it in recent years, is one which taxes to the utmost the mental and physical capacity under even the most favorable of conditions.
tleships and drown all the armies the world ever has seen. Oceans and oceans, consumed by man and his beasts. "How the cow’ has multiplied man! And yet so battened upon, she is calm, faithful and fruitful. As companion, she endures all—even indifference —contentedly. “Where her tribe flourishes, there is the earth green and the fields fertile. Man in well being and abundance. “She is Hosanna to the Lord! For where she is, at destruction and famine laughs, while he salts her, fodders her, beds her, milks her, breeds her. And thus tended, she eats her way from calfhood clear through to the digestive tract of humanity—her destiny. Her humble last farewell to man—the shoes upon his feet,” -
JUNE 13, 1933
It Seems to Me BY HEYWOOD BROUN =
NEW YORK, June 13. The meeting of the Maxes served to furnish many moral lessons. Every prizefight turns into a Greek tragedy. since the spectators always go bearing symbols. You may remember that a good many years ago Nordic civilization was at stake when Jeffries fought Jack Johnson. To be sure, in spite of the somewhat ignominious defeat of the Caucasian hope, the Nordic race still is in there swinging. I forget just what the issue wa3 when Tunnev knocked out Tom Henev, but Carpentier represented the spirit of the Marne when Dempsey tumbled him. and the Manassa Mauler in turn gave way to the inspiration of Billy Phelps and the Athenian ideal when Gene saw the Acropolis by moonlight, but shook it out of his head at the count of nineteen. I am told that Thursday night’s encounter was envisaged by the crowd as a trial bv combat between Rabbi Wise and Adolf Hitler. Although Schmeling is managed by a gentleman named Joe Jacobs, he had to serve, for the purposes of the evening's motional values, as the arch type of Nazi. And, naturally enough, Max Baer was the little David* who aimed between the eyes and achieved a technical knockout. a a a The Wormless Bird BUT there were other issues which seem to me to have been much more clearly drawn in the personalities of the two contenders. It was the butterfly versus the ant, the poetic concept of Edna St. Vincent Millay against the philosophy of Alfred Lord Tennyson, the wormless bird against the early riser. There is no newspaper rei>ort that Max Baer went into any poetic statement following his triumph, but he might very well have put out a paraphrase about as follows: "I burn my candle at both ends— It will not last the night; But, oh, my foes, and, oh, my friends, I certainly put up a lovely fight.” It has been the custom of the sporting commentators to refer to Maxie Baer as “Young Apollo.” I have no reason to set up as an authority on Apollos, but to me the resemblance is not striking. However, I have seen Mr. Baer in some of his lighter moments, and there is a distinct touch of Bacchus.
a a a Max Baer Seen Plain SOME four or five years ago, before I gave up going to night clubs, I encountered both Baer and Johnny Risko at a cabaret conducted by Miss Texas Guinan. Mr. Risko, who is known for convenience as "the India rubber man,” or “the Cleveland baker boy,” remained in character, in spite of his effete surroundings. If a bell had been rung suddenly I feel certain that he would have leaped from his chair swinging, both fists. But there was nothing about Max Baer to suggest primitive man. He was attired in a tail coat. He held his little finger extended as he drank his demi-tasses. His shirt was as white as a referee’s costume at the beginning of a fifteen-round bout. A lovely lady—presumably a Junior Leaguer—sat across the table from him. Although I was not close enough to eavesdrop, I got the distinct impression that they were disnussing literature. Mr. Baer, I gathered, was defending cummings. When Miss Guinan’s fine orchestra swung into one of the better waltzes, Max Baer arose and danced languorously and with distinction. “Nice floor,” he said, referring to the hardwood mat installed by Miss Guinan at great expense. And in matters of this sort praise from a prizefighter is praise indeed. a a m. A Sprig of Mignonette HE seemed a little fatigued when the encore began and said politely to his partner, “Shall we sit this out?” He used the broad “a” with insistent devotion, although not in the foregoing sentence, of course. Indeed, the whole effect was that of something from the old world. In the somewhat rowdy atmosphere which prevailed on rare occasions in Miss Guinan’s dump Max Baer moved like a sprig of mignonette. If I had not read it in all the papers I scarcely would have believed that this young dandy could have been the very same person who tore into Schmeling with both fists flying. But, as one of the characters in a George S. Kaufman play once remarked, the whole thing could not have been a typographical error. Accordingly, I salute the new contender for the heavyweight title. I like to see the boys who rise late get ahead pf those who calisthenize the sun into the heavens every morning. In boxing, as in other human activities, there can be such a thing as too much method. I always thought that the cavaliers should have prevailed against the roundheads. This time it happened. (Coovrisht. 1933 bv The Times)
Prophecy BY EUGENIE RICHART The tie that binds us never can be broken, • Or the last song sung, or the last word spoken. I could stay here and you could be On some strange island in some far sea. But the things we’ve worshipped together will Cast their magic over us still. And nothing that you or I can do Can keep this truth from being true. Remember, my dearest, our strange delight In searching for gho6ts together at night? Remember your futile questions why A man should live when he longed to die? You will recall what we’ve shared, and then It will be as if we had met again.
