Indianapolis Times, Volume 48, Number 33, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 April 1936 — Page 10
PAGE 10
The Indianapolis Times (A SC KIPPS-HO WARD NKWHPAPF.RI ROT W HOWARD I'resldent M DWELL DENNY E.lltor EARL I) MAKER Ruilnco Msimirr
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L *■' Give Li'jht and the People Will Find Their Otcn Way
SATURDAY. APRIL 18, 1938
331/3 PER CENT EFFICIENT TN the last presidential election, 2,534,959 New 1 orkcrs voted the Democratic ticket. And the party boasts that it is stronger in New York State now than ever before. Yet when the State Democratic Committee met in Albany the other day no one could think of a single person to take over the job of state party chairman. So the committee re-elected the Hon. James A. Farley. That is, it re-elected one-third of Mr. Farley. Another one-third of that expansive arid overworked person is occupied holding down the job of chairman of the Democratic National Committee for, strange as it seems, out of some 20-odd million Democrats in the country, the party can’t find a single one whose full-time devotion to party affairs would be as valuable as one-third of Mr. Farley’s time. The last one-third of Mr. Farley is the Postmaster Geno~al of the United States —for which job, incidentally, Mr. Farley collects the whole threethirds of his salary. We haven’t been asked, but if we were put to it, we bet we could find somewhere among the 70 million adult American citizens someone who could handle this last job as well as the residuary onethird of Mr. Farley handles it. Why not, in these jobless times, share the work? FORE! THE official opening of the municipal golfing season today finds the six municipal courses reconditioned and ready for play. Some of the tees and greens have been reconstructed. Landscaping has been improved. The balllosing hazard at the Charles E. Coffin course has been reduced by eliminating the lagoons on the sixteenth fairway. Clubhouses have been renovated. The heavy early-season play on Indianapolis courses is a reminder that we have one of the best municipal golf course systems in the country. A JUDGE IS REMOVED THE conviction and removal of Federal District Judge Halstead J. Ritter of Florida by the required bare two-thirds Senate vote was big news, but not because the count upon which the conviction was based was sensational Asa matter of fact the Senate failed to convict on six specific counts and convicted only on the general charge of unfitness under the seventh. The news of the conviction was big because of its rarity. In all our century and a half of history as a nation Judge Ritter' was only the fourth Federal judge to be convicted. Only nine altogether have been impeached, and brought to trial. Why? One would like to believe it because all of these thousands of Federal judges through all the years have been so circumspect as to be above suspicion of misbehavior We know this is not the case, for Federal judges are no less human than the rest of us, and the moral and professional batting average just naturally is not that high. The charges (hat enmeshed Judge Ritter related to a pretty widespread and scandalous evil —the misuse of Federal judgeship powers in passing out receiverships to friends. The reason Federal judges are not removed oftener, we think, is that the removal process is cumbersome, unfair and inadequate. First, charges must be brought in the House; then the House Judiciary Committee must sift them, naming a subcommittee to visit the scene and, often under handicap of insufficient funds, conduct an amateurish investigation; then the House votes impeachment; then the Senate sits as court, with a board of House “managers" acting as prosecutors. The House and Senate. legislative and political bodies, suddenly must turn themselves into judicial bodies. Often they must take out weeks of their valuable time. The x 10day trial of Judge Ritter was fairly well attended, but in the trial of Judge Louderback last session the “jury" often consisted of a mere handful of Senators. The process is unfair to the taxpayers, the Congress and the accused judge. Trials of Federal district and circuit judges could be made more simple, just and dignified. Congress could make House investigations more expert and Senate trials less clumsy. The Senate could authorize its Judiciary Committee or a board o*f its members to act as referees for taking testimony and making recommendations. And it should clarify removable offenses so that a judge could be removed for simple misconduct without having to be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors. HE WORKED WITH EDISON INDIANAPOLIS today mourns the death of Thomas Spencer, who worked w r ith Thomas A. Edison and George Westinghouse in their early studies of electricity, and who served until the end of his 80 years as a consulting electrical engineer. Mr. Spencer traced his ancestry’ back to John Alden and Priscilla Asa youth he was brilliant in mathematics. He became installation electrician for Edison plants Rnd was one of the inventor’s aids during the nineteenth century era of electrical development. Later, he worked under Westinghouse in perfecting the use of alternating current. For the last 18 years. Mr. Spencer had been consulting engineer for the Prest-O-Lite Storage Battery Cos. here. The community shares with Mrs. Spencer and her husband's associates their sorrow at his passing. IN DEAR OLD GEORGIA STEELED as the voters are against almost .anything bizarre by way of political chicane they will be shocked at some of the recent doings in Georgia as disclosed before the Senate Lobby Committee. Vance Muse, tall Texan, of John Henry Kirby’s ••Southern Committee to Uphold the Constitution," admitted to the committee that he was responsible for distributing through the South scads of pictures showing Mrs. Roosevelt entering a meeting accompanied by two Negroes. These pictures not only were broadcast from filling stations through oie Cracker State but were found on the delegates’ seats at Uie . * Jjsii ■ m.' i
so-called Jeffersonian Grass Roots convention called in Macon last January to nominate Gene Talmadge as the anti-Roosevelt Democratic candidate for President. Shocking, too, was Mr. Muse's disclosure as to the gentlemen who have been financing such methods of upholding the Constitution. Among the contributors to the Kirby committee were John J. Raskob and Pierre du Pont, each down for SSOOO. That famous New York Bourbon, Ogden Mills, donated SIOO to the cause. Frank B. Kellogg shelled out SSO. Our old friend H. C. Hopson of Associated Gas and Electric added his mite, and so did Hearst's general counsel, John Francis Neylan. Steel, oil, auto and power tycoons chipped in what they could afford. These silk-hatted angels of the Georgia adventure in race prejudice apparently are on the spot for most any kind of organization that presents a blue print on how to stop Roosevelt. Some of the same big-hearted Jeffersonians have helped finance the “Farmers Independence Council” out in Kansas, the Crusaders, and, of course, that palladium of the old virtues, the Liberty League. Considering what they are getting for their good hard cash one is constrained to remark that some people and their money are soon parted or that one is bom every I minute. In view of the ease with which the city rubes of politics are being separated from their coin, the current campaign may prove a potent factor in the redistribution of the nation's wealth. CRIME’S ROOTS JpOR years penologists have damned the American attitude toward crime and criminals as a mixture of rage, sentimentality and medievalism. Comes now a report of the Osborne Association, Inc., to bulwark this damnation with facts revealing our penal system as almost an utter failure. In the 10 years between 1924 and 1934 the prison population of the United States increased just 100 per cent, says the association's report. There are 160,000 persons now in American prisons and reformatories. The annual crime bill is around 14 billions, or about one-quarter of the national income. The indictment is long and bitter. Prisons become schools for crime as the result of overcrowding and idleness due to “the devastating effect of the Hawes-Cooper Act” aimed at prison industries. Only a few states-—notably New Hampshire and Virginia—are providing well-rounded prison industrial programs. Only a “few honest attempts" are being made to develop educational programs looking to rehabilitation of inmates. On the other hand, crime is sensationalized by such'morbid scenes as a public hanging, a certain warden’s herding of prisoners to witness a gas chamber execution, Gov. Talmadge’s glorification of the chain-gang system, Roman holidays like the Hauptmann trial and execution. Crime is not an isolated problem that can be fenced off by prison walls or crushed by whipping posts, executions, chain gangs or extralegal brutalities. It has its roots.in slums, hobo jungles, unemployment, poverty, ignorance, disease, broken homes and the unholy alliance between politics and law enforcement. • The new penology will not only turn our great penal institutions into real reformatories; it will also seek to remove crime’s incubation places. A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT By Mrs. Walter Ferguson OTORIES about vice rings in New York City are disquieting. Not only because investigation has bared sinister rackets with unspeakable moral evils but because we are told that “respectable married -, wejn.ei\ would be lured-by taxi drivers and professional procurers to participate in a quiet little poker game at some club." From these quiet little poker games, it seems, the victims speedily went down the road to prostitution. But isn’t there something sadly wrong in a country where respectable married women are so eager to gamble that they can be lured to their destruction by strange taxi drivers? Perhaps all • this is clear to New Yorkers, but to those whose lives are set in less exciting places it is puzzling. We admit, of course, that the desire “to take a chance” is inherent in most of us and amounts to a passionate urge in many. It is apparent, nevertheless, that Americans ought to call a halt on their unoridled lust for this sport. Gambling is so often the first step in a career of crime. Thousands of young men who might have been useful citizens lead aimless, even dangerous, lives because they were attacked early with the virus of speculation. The professionals have their counterparts in every corner of the country. Scores of other respectable married women throughout the hinterland might not listen to taxi drivers urging little poker games on them, but they do neglect their homes and children, and make their husbands unhappy because of the fatal fascination of the bridge table. And one gambles so much more than money, as these unfortunate victims of New York’s vice rings have discovered. On the roulette wheel, at the races, over the cards, one also stakes one's precious time, energy, ambition and thought. Nerves are worn raw. unhappiness is augmented everywhere because the gambling fever rages in our veins. The desire for easy money is at the bottom of all this. In the last analysis that desire now endangers national morals and threatens the characters of the children. It has let loose upon us hordes of racketeers and criminals. Hadn't we better admit, then, that gambling is a vice, and begin to educate the young to that notion? HEARD IN CONGRESS SENATOR REYNOLDS CD., N. O.): After I had been prosecuting attorney in a number of mountain counties in North Carolina for a number of years I began private practice in my home town of Asheville, N. C. I was stopped on the street one day by a good friend of mine, one of the ablest members of the bar, Judge Jones, who said, “Bob, I have been noticing you in the courtroom. You would make a wondertul lawyer. Study law.’” I said "Judge, lam too busy practicing." (Laughter). a a a SENATOR REYNOLDS <D.. N. C.): My daddy had a lot of good common sense, and that is worth more than all the book sense on earth. I remember that he said to me. “Son. do not ever say anything behind a person's back that you can not say to his face." and I have been working in a gymnasium ever since. nun {SENATOR BENSON (F.-L., Minn.): I firmly believe that the opinions of the Supreme Court are, in many instances, largely influenced by the economic views of the judges of that court, and I do not hesitate to say so here. I refer particularly to a recent decision by the justice from my state. Mr Pierce Butler. I believe mat his op.uicu in the North Dakota railroad valuation case was purely an economic decision, because prior to the time’he took his seat on th£ bench of the Supreme Court he was i.i the employ of every railroad in the United States in the very matter affecting his decision, and that is railroad valuation. ... .
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Our Town By ANTON SCHERRER
Akihuk BOHN, dean of Indianapolis architects, was borr in Louisville, which immediately raises the question whether a good architect can come out of KentuckyOffhand, we should say the sooner he came the better. Which is exactly what Mr. Bohn did. He aidn t come, though, until he had learned to read. His Louisville training was so good that he now subscribes tc 5& periodicals and knows wnat is ir all of them. To be sure, some of them are picture bocks, out it all takes times and one wonders where Mr. Bohr iinus the time to do all the things he does. Even now he keeps up a habit, contracted in Kentucky, ol reading the dictionary for 15 minutes every morning Dtfore breakfast. To do all this, he uses seven pairs of spectacles. Four are scatterec around his office, the rest in his home. a u a MR. BOHN started his career ii the office of Diedrich Augusi Bohlen at the time Tomlinson Hal was designed. Mr. Bohn was jusl a draftsman then, along with Bernhard Vonnegut (Kurt's father) anc Oscar Bohlen (August's lather), bui even then he showed signs of becoming an architect. Fact is, all of them gave a gooc accounting. Mr. Vonnegut becam< Mr. Bohn’s partner and Mr. Bohler succeeded to his father’s business which is now 75 years old and shows no signs of dying out. Mr. Bohn saved up enough monej in Bohlen’s office to get him tc Europe. He settled down in Karlsruhe and studied under Prof. Durm who is still a memory because oi his big “Dictionary of Architecture.’ Durms dictionary stops with speculations as to how to nouse a steam locomotive, but Mr. Bohn kept righi on. Prof. Durm wanted Mr. Bohn to stay and participate in Germany s future, but he couldn’t see it. Mr. Bohn compromised, however, and married a German girl. They got married in the Court Chapel of the King’s Palace. Nobody knows how Mr. Bohn managed it, but he has a way about him. 8 8 8 AFTER that. Mr. Bohn got interested in America, although to this day he has never seen a game of proiessional baseball. He could design a stadium, however, if anybody asked him. He has designed everything else and there isn’t a question about skyscrapers or department stores that can stump him. He knows more about escalators, for instance, than any other architect in town. For the very good reason that he has designed all of them. Mr. Bohn says everybody will get around to escalators sooner or later. Even people like Marshall Field, Filene’s and Altman’s had to come to it, not because they wanted to, but because the elevators are breaking down. Figuratively speaking, of course. It’s nothing, for instance, for 40,000 people to visit an Indianapolis store in a single day. Like as not, that is the day the wife comes home late and entertains us with stories about the behavior of downtown elevators. Something just had to be done about it, says Mr. Bohn. n a tt DON’T get the idea, however, that escalators compete with elevators, because, as matters stand, the same people make both. The Otis company, for instance, turned out the escalators for both Ayres’ and Block’s, and Mr. Bohh won’t say who got the better job. Both move at the rate of 90 feet a minute. The Otis people, we learned, are awfully busy just now turning out escalators for the Soviet Republic. Russian escalators, it leaked out run at the rate of 180 feet a minute. Escalators take up a lot of room, we learned, but merchants have become reconciled to that, too. For two reasons: (1) Because they make the upper floors as valuable as the street floor, and (2) because they create “hot spots” which is what you’ve been waiting to hear about. A hot spot in a department store is a place which for some reason, or no reason at all, attracts trade. The Ayres and Blick people, it seems, expect to do a lot of new business around their escalators and it sounds reasonable enough. Makes up for all their trouble, says Mr. Bohn.
TODAY’S SCIENCE _BY DAVID DIETZ
THIRTY great mineral districts, scattered over the face of the earth, produce three-fourths of the world’s mineral supplies. These are the districts where nature has concentrated her mineral wealth with a lavish hand. These are the wellsprings of modern civilization, the fountainheads of national greatness. They are also the storm-centers about which the destructive winds of the ney„ world war will blow. Nations bordering the North Atlantic, particularly the United States and the nations of western Europe, possess the most important of these mineral districts. That is the chief reason, in the opinion of Prof. C. K. Leith, chairman of the Mineral Inquiry of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers, why those nations dominate the world today. Today, every nation is striving for mineral self-sufficiepcy. But no nation has adequate amounts of all minerals. From this fact arise many international complications and a ne? importance for the freedom of the seas. Prof. Leith says that a third of the world's mineral tonnage—consisting chiefly of coal, oil and iron —moves across international boundaries. In war time, control of the seas will be essential to victory. Three-fourths of the world’s supply of iron ore, the chief raw material of the Age of Steel, comes from a handful of sources in five countries of the world. They are the Lake Superior region and the state of Alabama in the United States; northeastern France and Luxemburg, the Cleveland. Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Cumberland districts of England, the Kiruna district of Sweden, and the Bilbao district of northern Spain. The situation with regard to coal is much the sain*,
NOW THEY’LL BEGIN RUNNING FASTER
ewes ] irmi ii • A 1036. KSU
The Hoosier Forum l disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.
ITimes readers are invited to express their views in these columns, reliuious controversies excluded. Hake your letters short, so all can have a chance. Limit them to ZSO words or less. Your letter must be sianed. but names will be withheld on reouest.) a a a BLAMES DEPRESSION ON PROFITEERS By W. Williams, Columbus The Democrats have been in power almost four years and this is what we find: Between 12 and 13 million idle men, about 25 million people on relief. We also have about 75 more million dodging the poorhouse and bankruptcy court, while a mere handful has more than they can spend or reinvest. The answer is simple. It is that the real owners do not and will not distribute sufficient purchasing power among their employes to buy its output. I read an article the other day in a paper where it said that eight women in Moscow were sent to prison for trying to profiteer. The joke is that in this country we do not arrest them for profiteering, but we send them to Congress and to the Legislature. It looks to me like the New Dealers will get away with the election this fall, sailing under the same sort of a flag that' put Hitler in power in Germany. But here and there a red streak shows up on the horizon that promises better things for the man that works. Now, Mr. Working Man, you had
Watch Your Health
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN This is the last of the series of articles on diet which I have written for about the last four months. The knowledge obtained from these articles should enable you to avoid deficiencies in your diet and obtain from your food the maximum benefits for health and for growth. There is a great difference between just living satisfactorily, and having the exuberant, buoyant feeling that comes with perfect condition of tissues and excellent nutrition. Perhaps the most significant of all information offered in this series of articles is that concerning the protective foods, such as milk, fruits, vegetables, eggs, cod liver oil, liver, lamb’s kidneys, and similar substances, which are essential in providing the diet with necessary vitamins and mineral salts. These are likely to be taken in insufficient amounts, if one subsists largely on the meat, potatoes, vegetables and bread of a previous generation. Dietary authorities recommend that at least half of the total intake of food consist of the protective foods. They suggest that at least as much money be spent for milk, cream, and cheese as for meats, fish and popltry, and at least half as much be spent for fruits and vegetables as for meats of all kinds. a a a THE essentials of a well-balanced diet are those which provide, in the words of an authority, “Two or more liberal servings of fruits each day; two or more servings of vegetables daily, of which one should be a green or yellow vegetable, if desired, such equivalents as canned milk, milk powder, cheese, and cream, and an average of four or five eggs a week, more or less, depending on how well eggs agree, and their price.’’ This, however, is a rigid list and
IF YOU CAN’T ANSWER, ASK THE TIMES!
Inclose a 3-ccnt starjp for reply when addressing any quest'on of fact or information to The lidianapolie Times Washington Service Boreas, 1013 13thst. N. W., Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice can not be given, nor can extended research be undertaken. Q —Give the titles of some of the longest novels. A—“ The Vicomte de Bragelonne,” by Alexander Dumas, in the “Three Musketeers” series, contains about 850,000 words. “Anthony Adverse” has about 640,000; Tolstoi’s “War and Peace,” about 030,000, and Victor .Hugo's “Les Miserables,” about 500,000. * Q—Who handles the diplomatic ✓
better start to agitate, educate and organize, because you have nothing to lose but your ball and chain and the whole world to gain. u a a SEES MORAL IN CASE OF PORTSMOUTH, O. By Reader Anybody who lives beside an American river might do well to reflect on two things—the case of Portsmouth, 0., and the fable of the three little pigs. The pigs, as you may remember, set out to build houses. One pig saw trouble coming, built a house of brick, and got by nicely when the huffing and puffing began. The other little pigs, building less securely, had a great deal of trouble. Now, Portsmouth is a solid industrial city nestled down on a point of land between the Ohio and Scioto Rivers. Some years ago the citizens decided to take a leaf from the smart pig’s book and get ready for trouble. So they laid out $75,000 to build a great steel and concrete flood wall along the water front. There are a good many other cities along the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to Cincinnati, and of them all Portsmouth seems to have been the only one that went to the expense of putting up a big wall. There must have been years when the $750,000 put into that wall looked like a bad investment. But Portsmouth sat tight and waited. This spring the snows melted, the rains descended, and the waters rose; and what happened?
anyone with imagination may vary it to make a greater appeal to the appetite. The information in this series isn’t scientists’ final word on nutrition and diet. Those who have been following the tremendous advances of the last 25 years know that we are only on the threshold of what we ultimately will be able to learn on this subject. In addition to the research of scientists in laboratories of the great universities and schools of nutrition, manufacturers of food products have begun to realize that foods constitute the most important item in the American budget. All the greqt good industries have established laboratories in which research goes on constantly to determine how foods may be improved from the point of view of value in the diet and appeal to the appetite. a a a TN the application of the newer dietary knowledge to the control of disease, also are beginning to learn much that is new and significant. Newly discovered facts have changed our viewpoint regarding the relationship of certain dietary deficiencies to various diseases of some organs, to the breaking down of bones and of teeth, to the occurrence of such conditions as pellagra, neuritis, scurvy and similar deficiency diseases. Some specialists, even, are prepared to say that we may eventually be able to improve the human mind by modifying the diet. Asa result of our new knowledge, children are growing bigger and taller, and they weigh more than did their ancestors. And we know that it is possible for them to live a little longer. That is certainly more than enough to warrant widespread dissemination of the “Truth About Diet.”
affairs of Palestine in the United States? A—The British embassy. Q—Was the motion picture, “Stark Love,” taken from a novel and, if so, who wrote it? A—lt was written and produced by Karl Brown, and was not taken from a book. Q —Can a naturalized American citizen be elected to the United •States Senate? A—Yes. Q —Name the various parts of a flower. A—Sepals, petals, stamens and pistils.
Every other city in the vicinity was flooded. But Portsmouth snuggled down behind its flood wall and went about its business dry-shod. There is the neatest kind of moral in all this, both for those who live in river cities and for those who do not. Those great “natural” catastrophes that visit us every so often—whether they be floods, industrial depressions, or wars—don’t come out of a blue sky. We can see them, years in advance. And despite all ,hat we say about their irresistible force, it is possible to get ready for them. Portsmouth proved it. Isn’t the tip worth taking? a a a ONE-HOUSE ASSEMBLIES FIND FAVOR By T. L. Slowly the idea of unicameral Legislatures takes hold of the country. Nebraska, after a long battle, adopted the plan and New York state solons will be asked shortly to indorse a resolution providing for a study of the one-house system. Proponents that, among other advantages, the unicameral body eliminates the necessity of a legislator “lobbying” his bills through a second house. Moreover, it is said, the one-house body would command a prestige not now possible because buck-passing” has become an all too familiar practice of the present two-house setup. . . It is significant that our deliberative bodies, recognizing their own imperfections, are setting about to improve the modern Legislature. And if the new proposal does .little more than call attention to the weaknesses of these bodies, it has been worth while MAIL PLANES BY M. C. W. There’s a singing roar, When the mail sails o'er. • I’ve a glow within, As I know therein— Flies message I send, To a waiting friend. DAILY THOUGHT For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. —St. Matthew 24:24. THE writers against religion, while they oppose every system, are wisely careful never to set up any of their own.—Burke.
SIDE GLANCES By George Clark
“I just wouldn't have a comfortable moment , if / let you ■people go to a hotel while you're here*
APRIL 18, 1936
Vagabond from Indiana ERNIE PYLE
EDITOR'S NOTE—This rovinc reporter for The Timet toes where he pleasei, when he please*. in search of odd storiea about this and that. Mexico city, April is r have spent one day here getting all the low-down on the Mexican movie-making industry. There isn't much of an industry yet. But there will be. Mexico has about 6000 movie theaters. About 3000 show pictures every’ day; the rest once or twice a week. Almost all have sound equipment. They show mostly American and European pictures. Tho talk is in English, but there is a caption now’ and then in Spanish Five years ago they starred making movies in Mexico, using Mexican actors who spoke Spanish. But it has been helter-skelter movie making. A company, would make maybe one picture, and then fold up. The pictures weren't very good. But now a real movie concern has been formed. Mexico City business men put up the money. It’s called Cinematografica Latino Americana, S. A. They call it “Clasa" for short. They have built a fine studio nine miles south of Mexico City. Even Hollywood would be proud of it. a a a THE main studio is about the size of a blimp hangar. It is surrounded by a dozen one and two-story buildings, like a village. Inside the big studio, workmen were tearing out a set. They had shot all the scenes needed, and were making room for new sets, i They've been working three weeks on this movie, and it’s the second one they’ve made. The first was “Pancho Villa.” They started it ; last July, and it's just about ready I for release now. When (hey were | photographing some battle scenes between bandits and Federal troops out along the highway people thought it was a real revolution and were almost scared to death. ana AT night I went to a park in Mexico City, where they were shooting a “drunk” scene in their new picture. I met and chatted with the star, between shots. His name is Alfredo Deldiestro, and he has been one of Mexico’s leading actors for a long time. The scene showed him coming home drunk and trying to unlock the big iron gates to his patio. He couldn’t find the keyhole. He almost fell down. He gurgled in drunken Spanish. They did it over and over again, under the floodlights. The director, Fernando de Fuentes, in brown pants and a blue skin-tight zipper shirt and cap, sat in a desk chair in front of the camera, right in the street, and told the star how to do it. About 200 people who lived in the. neighborhod gathered to watch. Whenever a scene was ready for the camera, one of the movie men would shout “silencio,” and the crowd would become as quiet as the grave. a a a MOST of the new company's technical personnel have served in Hollywood. Typical is J. Noriega, who has the important job of film cutter. He is Mexican, but looks andtalks like Eddie Rickenbacker. He was with RKO for 10 years. The photographic staff of three are Americans from Hollywood. All the rest are Mexicans. They seem to know their business, too. Within a year, when all the equipment is in, they expect to turn out about 12 full-length pictures, and 50 shorts, a year. They’ve spent about a million pesos already, building the studio and producing the first picture, Mexican stars don’t get the salaries ours do—at least not yet. The leading man gets 200 pesos a week' (about $55) when he’s not working;> and 500 (about $140) when he ii working. a a a AND here's the strangest part of all—they can’t find any leading ladies! They’re almost frantic. It seems the upper crust won’t let their daughters go into the movies. So they have to choose from the lower classes. Thfey’ve tried hundreds of girls and haven’t found one yet. When they get a beautiful one. she’s dumb.* Or a smart one, an<£ she’s ugly. Or her voice won’t do, or she can't act, or something. I saw a modernized Yucatan Indian girl in a restaurant the other night who might fill the Dill. But I don't know where to find her now. And, anyway, she was so beautiful that I suppose she was dumb.
