The Indianapolis times. [volume], April 01, 1936, Final Home Edition, Second Section, Page PAGE 14, Image 14

About The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965

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PAGE 14
The Indianapolis Times
(A SCHirrS-HCWARD NEWSPAPER)
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tloward Newspaper Alliance. News
paper Enterprise Association.
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Audit Bureau of Circulations.
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cept Sunday) by The Indianapolis
Times Publishing Cos.. 214-220 W.
Maryland-st. Indianapolis. Ind.
Price In Marlon County. 3 cents
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cents a week. Mali subscription
rales In Indiana. 93 a year: out
side of Indiana. 65 cents a month.
Phone RI ley 6551
Give Light and the
People Will Find
Their Own I Van
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 1938.
48 HOURS
T IFE Is precious. But is it so precious that one
would want to go through more of what Bruno
Richard Hauptmann went through Tuesday to gain
48 additional hours of it?
With shroud tailored, head shaved and trousers
■lit for the electrodes, the chair tested, the wit
nesses assembled and the hour of execution at
hand, the word arrived that there would be another
two days of suspense.
The full measure of agony suffered, to the very
minute of the death, agony the sum total of which
must be a thousand times greater than the mere
Jolt of unconsciousness which is death itself—and
then, 48 hours!
The kidnaping and murder of the Lindbergh
baby has been called the worst of all crimes.
There is an old saying about making the pun
ishment fit the crime.
If ever a punishment seemed to measure up, that
which society is inflicting on Hauptmann is it.
But, recalling some of the recent talk about the
Constitution, about Article One and the right of
free speech, and Article Four and the right against
unwarranted search and seizure, we wonder whether
society in this awful bungling of its right to kill
should not pause and consider that article which
says:
“Excessive bail shall not be required, ’ nor ex
cessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual pun
ishment inflicted.”
NO POLITICAL JOB
SELECT the Marion County welfare director on a
non-political basis, according t- competence and
personal fitness for the job.
This is the plea of the Better Government Per
sonnel Committee of the Indianapolis League of
Women Voters to the County Welfare Board. Ob
viously, the committee expresses the desire of the
citizens of this community.
Whether the new social security law really will
amount to something depends largely on the per
sonnel in charge. The Federal and state laws are
only a framework.
It would be folly to let political considerations
dictate the appointment of a county director. In
many ways, the director is more important than the
welfare board itself, for he will have direct charge
of administering the law. Tremendous responsibility
rests upon the board in making a wise selection.
APRIL FOOLING
AN occasion for tomfoolery, amiable asininity
and bootless errands, All Fools’ Day ushers in
spring in America this year with rare waggishness.
The weather man popped his little joke by drag
ging back the cold just when we were sure we’d
sent it packing.
Big business, all keyed up to prove the New
Deal is retarding prosperity, reads the Magazine of
Wall Street’s report that business activity is 13 per
cent higher than last year’s first quarter, and that
steel, chemicals, rubber, paint, lead and other in
dustries are climbing back to 1929 levels. Dr.
Townsend quarrels with his OARP’s co-founder,
Clements, and with Rep. McGroarty, author of the
Townsend bill in Congress, making his millions of
bewildered followers wonder if they aren’t being
fooled. •
A 76-year-old Indian awarded the first old-age
pension under Connecticut’s law, expects security,
but when his check comes it is for $3 a week, typical
of state-Fe'deral pensions now coming to light.
Hoover fools Landon; Borah fools Hoover; Knox
fools ’em both; Landon fools ’em all.
The day will be full of other foolery, not counting
the usual phony phone calls and solemn requests for
left-handed mohkey-wrenches, stirrup oil and
pigeon's milk. And we’ll like it, for if others don't
deceive us we'll do it ourselves.
UNCLE SAM, PUBLISHER
EARLY issues of the Federal Register, the new
Government dally which prints the official
orders of the executive departments, have found few
admirers on Capitol Hill.
Rep. Louis Ludlow (D., Ind.), who was a Wash
ington newspaper man for more than 25 years, took
the floor in the House to express his disapproval.
And Rep. Cochran (D., Mo.) has introduced a bill
to abolish the Register.
Mr. Ludlow said it will cost more than a quarter
of a million annually to print and that in his
opinion the publication is utterly useless.
Appropriations totalling $289,760 for the Federal
Register have already been voted, he pointed out.
“Cost of this publication includes $225,000 for
printing at the Government Printing Office and
$38,320 as the salary roll of the division engaged
in preparing the copy,” he said.
“Up to date there are just 69 subscribers. If
these 69 were yearly subscribers and were to pay
the full purchase price of $lO a year each, the total
revenue from subscriptions would be $690 a year.”
The Federal Register grew out of criticism of
the inaccessibility of NRA orders—orders which had
the effect of law. It was originally planned to
publish accumulated orders of NRA and other
agencies, as well as current orders, but no appro
priation has been made for that since NRA was de
clared unconstitutional.
Nevertheless, Mr. Ludlow disclosed the Register
staff consists of a S4BOO director, a S3BOO editor, three
$3200 associate attorney examiners, five $2600 assist
ant examiners, five stenographers and a file clerk,
the total being $38,320.
Current numbers consist of as few as four maga
zine-size pages, and contain such orders as one .from
the Agriculture Department respecting canned
mushrooms and an executive order establishing
Kellys Slough Migratory Waterfowl Refuge in North
Dakota.
LABOR’S NEW NRA
in'INAL touches are being put on a redrafted bill
to impose labor requirements of the NRA type
on contractors who supply the government annually
with billions of dollars worth of construction, sup
plies and services.
A House subcommittee, headed by Rep. Healey
(D., Mas.), has completed hearings on the highly
controvert :al bill introduced by him as a substitute
for the Walsh bill passed last summer by the Senate,
which contains even more drastic provisions.
Labor, including President William Green of the
A. F. of L., has strongly supported the Healey bill’s
main provisions for establishment of maximum
hours and minimum wages, and abolition of child
and prison labor, on government contract work. Sec
retary of Labor Perkins also indorsed it, but sug
gested that a special commission 'rather than the
Labor Department should decide on the wages and
hours in each industry.
Employers and contractors, including the United
States Chamber of Commerce and the National As
sociation of Manufacturers, objected strenuously in
nearly two weeks of hearings, charging the bill was
was unconstitutional, costly to them, and unwar
ranted.
Even the child-labor prohibition brought an ob
jection from a California dried fruit trade associa
tion, whose representative stated that at the height
of the packing season enough help could not be ob
tained without employing children.
Militant feminists expressed fear that the Sec
retary of Labor in setting wage and hour limits
would discriminate gainst women unless a special
clause was inserted prohibiting sex discrimination.
Some labor unions whose members work on small
government jobs complained because the bill as first
drawn would not apply to contracts of less than
S2OOO.
The men who do the Government’s big construc
tion jobs under contract are required under present
law to observe the 8-hour day and to pay prevailing
wages. But the Associated General Contractors at
tacked the bill because it would complicate their job
and provide new penalties, and on the ground that
the government does not meet the same standard on
jobs which it executes itself.
THE PAYOFF
'T'HE very term “fix-proof” for the new triplicate
traffic tickets is an admission that the “fixing”
of traffic stickers has been a common practice.
On the first day of the new traffic drive, 150 auto
ists were given the “non-fixable” stickers. Few have
appeared to pay their fines.
Drivers who have dodged this law in the past can
do much to reduce the high automobile traffic toll in
Indianapolis. Their prompt payment of fines would
lend new respect to the law, new force to the cam
paign for safety. It should be unnecessary for po
lice to go out and haul them in. They can help the
police make these stickers stick.
THE BATTLE LINE
TN the cargo of Pan-American Airways’ big clipper
that set out the other day from San Francisco
was a consignment of live insects shipped from
South America to make war on fruit pests in Hawaii.
This was only an incident in the ceaseless, but
unsung, war the government’s scientists are waging
against real enemies of the people. We spend bil
lions to arm against a hypothetical human foe, and
the Agriculture Department’s Bureau of Entomology
gets a few millions a year to do battle with plant
devouring pests that swarm over our borders and
ravage our food supply. Dr. Henry G. Knight of the
Department of Agriculture says that predatory in
sects annually cause more than $2,000,000,000 worth
of damage and destroy 10 per cent of the value of
all growing crops.
Tribute to the work of the government’s little
anti-insect army is paid in this month’s issue of
Fortune. Here is maintained the “longest battle line
on earth.” In the four years before the defenses
were raised in 1912, says Fortune, six of the worst
foreign pests known to American farmers entered
the country. Since then only one major foreign pest
has crashed the barriers—the Mediterranean fruit
fly.
Os course, this is all a rank Federal invasion of
states’ rights under the Supreme Court’s majority
decision calling agriculture a local affair. But, hap
pily, the processors haven’t objected.
We are likely to have to spend more, not lss,
on this war as time goes on. Insects are getting
more immune to poisons and more mobile as men’s
transportation facilities improve. They may not
drive the human family from the earth as some
alarmists warn, but they have been here 40 million
years compared to mankind’s 400,000 years. They
are much more at home than we are, and many
of their tribes have learned what we have not
learned—the advantages of co-operation.
A WOMAN’S VIEWPOINT
By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
T LIKE what one Gold Star mother said. When
asked to comment on the epidemic of collegiate
funning at the veteran organizations, she replied: “I
don’t care what the young people do, so long as they
do something to prevent another war.”
Most of us feel that way. The pique of the veter
ans and the pride of the Army may be aroused,
bat. that makes no difference. What matters is that
there shall be no more war for the United States.
The only important thing is that the children now
growing up shall be able to resist whatever kind of
propaganda may assail them in the future.
Level-headed individuals who honestly think the
antics of the youngsters are endangering American
ism have sensibly advised us to laugh off these surges
of rebellion. Yet two, it seems, can play at that game.
While juvenile "foolishness” is being laughed off by
adults, adult "foolishness,” which certainly includes
the making of war, is being laughed off by juveniles.
May they keep on laughing! Humor has killed
innumerable silly movements; it could kill war.
So long as young people see the fraud behind the
tinsel and hear the death chant above the drums,
they may escape Proscription and their nation may
escape annihilation by the simple process of laugh
ing at the pompousness of the propagandists. For
youth today is not so stupid as its elders have been
about a good many things.
The veterans have their adjusted compensation
and the war mothers their Gold Stars. For all they
have done for their country we give them credit,
gratitude and glory. We only challenge their right
to lead us into another war by the same credulity
which stopped their reasoning in 1914.
HEARD IN CONGRESS
TSTEp^ MARTIN (D., Colo.); I once occupied a
position in the cab of a locomotive, but unlike
my friend Mr. Cooper (R. O.), I did not attain
the exalted station on the right-hand side, as we
call it. I was that humble and murky individual
down on the deck who produced the power, or, as we
used to say in the vernacular of the railroad, fur
nished the fog.
* * *
Rep. Martin (D., Colo.): I can not permit my
beloved friend the gentleman from Oklahoma (Rep.
Massingale) to get away with the proposition that he
is the only "snipe” in this distinguished body. In
case the members do not know what a “snipe" is, I
may say he is an individual who handles a type of
shovel known as a No. 2 I sniped for a year at sl.lO
a day for 10 long hours each day. and when it comes
to the "snipe” vote in this body ft is going to be a tie.
THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES
Squaring
the Circle
With
THE HOOSIER EDITOR
rmay be rushing the season just
a little but those who loolj for
first robins and other signs of the
spring arrival may count this one up
to experience.
I am thinking about a fishing
trip—not of taking one, but of one
which was taken some time back—
and the one story which should
bring the fisherman and hunter of
little beastie together for the first
time.
It was on a shallow stretch of
a northern Indiana lake and the
bait was an artificial plug. The
fisherman, orthodox conservative
and teetotaler that he was, al
most had what our forefathers
called a conniption fit when
hi* line went taut, then rose into
the air, circled and squawked.
He caught a mud-hen.
tt m tt
were talking about what to
’ * do with this country and this
one glib fellow suggested that we
give the country back to the wooden
Indians.
They are almost extinct around
town, but we hear of several in the
provinces. Not so many years ago
the market value of the authentic
wooden Indian was placed around
$125, but this was when people were
buying Dickens’ “firsts” and hoping
they hadn’t paid more than twice
what they were worth.
It comes to mind that there used
to be a real wooden Indian on W.
Washington-st and another at the
other end of the downtown district,
but we haven’t seen them for years
and suppose they are now glutting
the wooden Indian market some
where, unhonored and certainly
unsung.
jr tt u
A FRIEND of ours had the quaint
idea of manufacturing these
unique signs which every cigar store
worthy of the name used to display,
but the spirit of the thing wasn’t the
same—we doubt if it would have
been much of a commercial suc
cess.
He thought every one wanted a
wooden Indian, but we feel that
what, every one wanted along that
line was perhaps to talk about
someone else who had a wooden In
dian. But we may be in error.
tt tt tt
"D ICKEY, a bow-legged little mutt
of a dog, and the honking
ducks at Lake Reginald Sullivan
have a fierce game of make-believe
warfare every Sunday.
The ducks# serenely sailing on the
lake, provoke Rickey to a kind of
canine mirth. He hides behind a
favorite large rock 10 feet from the
water’s edge, and when a covey of
ducks comes close to shore he shoots
out into the shallow water barking
madly.
The ducks retreat in confusion.
When they get a safe distance out
they stand up in the water, ruffling
their feathers, and honk indignant
ly. It happens several times in an
afternoon.
The strange part of it is that the
first time Rickey met a duck he beat
it with his tail between his legs.
tt tt
SATURDAY, two tall, bashful
high school boys wearring let
ter sweaters stood irresolutely be
fore a local burlesque theater. They
stared at the posters and then con
ferred together.
Finally, deciding they had the
nerve and the cash, they plunged
up to the ticket window.
At that moment, the steady
stream of cars passing the theater
halted and a horn blew wildly. A
middle-aged woman in a car packed
with basketball fans leaned out the
window and shouted, “Yoo hoo,
Johnny.”
The boys turned around and,
recognizing a neighbor from the
home town, blushed a deep scarlet.
An elderly man with drooping
whiskers and frayed gentility
watched the incident with quiet
amusement.
TODAY’S SCIENCE
BY DAVID DIETZ
Tp'Oß- those who know the constel
lations, the Heavens are singing
the Song of Solomon:
“For, 10, the winter is past.
The flowers appear on the earth;
The time of the singing of the birds
is come.”
The constellations of winter,
Orion, the mighty hunter, Taurus,
the bull, and the two dogs, Canis
Major and Canis Minor, are ap
proachihg the Western horizon.
With March, the three constella
tions which herald the spring, ap
peared in the eastern sky, Leo, Virgo
and Bootes.
And now, as April begins, the tiny
but beautiful constellation of Lyra
with its brilliant white star, Vega,
returns to the sky. You will find
it low in the northeast If you can
see the horizon, you will get your
first glimpse of Vega at about 8:30
p. m Then it will look orange in
color but as it mounts higher into
the sky, it will assume its character
istic clear white.
Vega should -be easily found be
cause of its great brilliance.
To find the other constellations of
spring, begin with the Big Dipper.
About midway between the handle
and the horizon is Arcturus.
Another bright star near the
southeastern horizon is -Spica.
brightest star in the constellation of
Virgo, the virgin.
To the west of Virgo is the con
stellation of Leo.
MAKE THIS THE END OF THE ROAD!
- sw
The Hoosier Forum
1 disapprove of what you say—and will defend
to the death your right to say it. — Voltaire.
lTimes readers are invited to express
their views in these columns, religious
controversies excluded. Make vour letters
short, so all can have a chance. Limit
them to 2 50 words or less. Your letter
must he stoned, but names will be
withheld on reouest.l
tt tt it
GREENLEE ON M’HALE-ISM
MAKES HIM GO ’ROUND
By D. S. Goble.
The recent release of Mr. Green
lee on McHale-ism sorta made a
fellow feel a little haywire or maybe
like things were going ’round.
It is hardly becoming a candidate,
whose past should be above sus
picion, to give a fellow the devil for
occupying the house that he had so
entertainingly occupied and from
such recent occupancy, feasts were
spread, favors given and all were
merry as the marriage ball.
“But oh, what a difference in the
morning” after the festival and
mayhap wonders if it was a dream
and am I out here all alone in the
dreary night and drizzling rain. Mc-
Hale-ism is all wrong but Greenlee
ism was all right. I can imagine his
saying, “Boys, it was me. I issued
the plums with a high hand. I was
the Constitution. Don’t forget it
was Pleas, boys.” So it depends on
whose bull is getting gored whether
you can take it or not.
They always told me to see Pleas,
there was no use to see McNutt and
so either you did or you didn’t. If
you did, it sounds to me quite a lot
like McHale-ism, and if you didn’t,
well, it would seem the Greenlee
boys are barking up the wrong tree.
Sometimes we talk too darn much.
tt f tt
DECLARES REACTIONARY ZEAL
IS MISDIRECTED
By Biram Lackey
It is pathetic to behold the mis
directed zeal of reactionaries. They
are lovers of sacred things. They
are, in many ways, the people with
whom I like best to associate. I
have but one objection—their spirit
always has killed the prophets and
Watch Your Health
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN
Edmund kean, the famous
actor, it is said, used to fit his
diet to the part he had to play.
He would eat pork for the role of
tyrant; beef for that of murderer,
and mutton for that of lover.
There was just as much sense tc
this idea as there is to that of per
sons who still think that what we
eat affects our personality.
Some vegetarians say that meat
eaters have a tendency to become
ferocious, while those who abstain
from meat are gentle in tempera
ment. Others say that meat con
tains harmful germs, yet most of
us know that meat sold in interstate
commerce is under government con
trol, and that, when properly cooked,
it has no harmful germs.
The truth is that meat is an im
portant food that is often included
in diets designed to increase weight
or to sustain normal nutrition, par
ticularly for the working man.
Americans eat great amounts of
meat, consisting mostly of beef,
veal, pork, lamb, fish and fowl. The
muscle meats do not provide many
of the essential ingredients for a
healthful diet as compared with
glandular organs, such as liver and
kidney. The glandular organs, or
entrails, contain considerable quan
tities of the important vitamins.
IF YOU CAN’T ANSWER, ASK THE TIMES!
InetoM S-eent (tamp for reply when
addressing any qnestion of fact or in
formation to Tha Indianapolis Times
Washington Servieo Bureau. 1013 13th
at, N. W.. Washington. D. C. Legal and
medical advice ean not bo given, nor
can extended research bo undertaken.
Q—What is a panache?
A—A group of feathers on a head
gear, usually a helmet. Hence it
refers to any military plumage, and
figuratively denotes swaggering.
Q —Wlup it is 12 o’clock noon,
Central Standard Time ia # the
persecuted our wise men from city
to city.
It is the spirit that once brought
the most shameful of all disgraces
upon civil law, an injustice and
cruelty which is ever before our
minds during these days of prayer
ful living. This blow was the mis
take of those who choose to call
themselves “the better element.”
Today the world is suffering so in
tensely from the lack of men who
will think with that clarity which
recognizes the social changes which
represent real progress. Just as a
great people once lived on the
laurels of Moses so are reaction
aries resting on the work of Wash
ington, Jefferson and Lincoln. Are
we facing a similar destruction?
Have we reactionary candidates
who can solve the crime problem?
Can they not read how England and
Russia have solved the problem of
crime? If Russia has solved her
problem of prostitution, thievery
and unemployment by humane,
logical social planning, why can’t
we? Can’t we, as religious people,
do something more constructive
than talk about the foul breath
of Communistic Russia?
URGES RECOGNITION OF
CONSUMERS AS OWNERS
By H. L. Seeger
Fascism is the end product of a
perverted and inverted social or
ganization of our industrial struc
ture. This perversion is due to a
major emphasis upon “producers in
terest” as paramount in our econ
omy which accounts for a failure of
consideration for the consumer who
is the sole support of any economy.
Fascism is inevitable as the nat
ural consequence of ignoring the
consumers as the rightful owners
of the profits of industry, which
their patronage makes possible.
Fascism is the last struggle of in
dustry to seize profits for the bene
fits of stockholders who contribute
only capital to industry, but who
are helpless when the consumers are
denied these profits as purchasing
1%/rEATS should not be important
•*■*■*■ parts of reducing diets, al
though a small portion of meat can
do no particular harm if properly
calculated as one constituent. For
example, two slices of the breast
of duck, weighing 84 grams or about
one-sixth of a pound, provide 19
grams of protein and three grams of
fat, 100 calories! a little phosphorus
and Iron, but very little of any of
the important vitamins or other im
portant food constituents.
A slice of roast beef of the same
weight provides 24 grams of protein,
16 grams of fat and 240 calories, a
little phosphorus and iron, but lit
tle in the way of important vitamins.
A slice of steak about three inches
by two by one-half inches in size,
and weighing about one-tenth of a
pound, provides 10 grams of protein,
6 grams of fat and about 100 cal
ories. Veal is about the same, but
ham and bacon require much less to
give the same amount of energy.
Thus, 100 calories are supplied by
either four small slices of bacon, one
small pork chop, or a very small veal
cutlej.
It is for this reason that the meat
products do not enter largely into
reducing diets.
United States, what time is it in
Bombay, India?
A—11:30 p. m.
Q —What is javelle water? How
is it made?
A—An aqueous solution of sodium
hypochlorite, made by passiny chlo
rine into a solution of caustic soda
(or potash), by electrolyzing a solu
tion of sodium (or potassium) chlo
ride, or by mixing sodium (or potas
sium) with bleadMng powder and
water< .. 1
power. Capital is entitled to a fair
hire as stored labor not to exceed
6 per cent, but not to the profits
exacted from the consumer above
this capital wage of 6 per cent.
The present inflation of credit in
dicates a serious lack of consumer
purchasing power. Its continuation
presages a false prosperity which
will collapse when this inflation of
credit is no longer posible. With
it will come a consequent rapid de
flation, business failure and devas
tating unemployment.
The panic of the middle classes in
that crisis, facing obliteration, will
grasp for a straw to prevent their
descent into poverty. To avoid Fasc
ism the American consumers must
become the object of profit dividends
in proportion to the patronage they
contribute to every line of business.
These dividends should create a
share interest in the capital struc
ture with voting rights as to choice
of directors and policy, and provide
the missing purchasing power which
is now temporarily supplied by credit
inflation. Fascism will come if we
fail to recognize that consumers are
the legitimate owners of the profits
of every business in proportion to
the patronage given.
PERFECTION
BY JOSEPHINE DUKE MOTLEY
I keep a picture of you in my mind;
Perfection rules your every
thought and need.
Alas for me if I should ever find
Some fault within your manner,
look or deed.
And yet, perhaps one slight defect
or two
Would humanize this dream, make
you more real;
In fact, I think a fault or two in
you
Wold be quite perfect. That is
how I feel.
DAILY THOUGHT
Oh, let the wickedness of the
wicked come to an end; but estab
lish the just; for the righteous God
trieth the hearts and reins.
Psalms vii, 9.
MAN is unjust, but God is just;
and finally justice triumphs.—
Longfellow.
SIDE GLANCES
me utu tmrarr , . ;
“You see, we couldn’t pay the doctor as much as he usually
gets, so we named the baby after him to sort of make
up for it.”
'APRIL 1, 1936
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE
EDITOR'S NOTE—Thli rtrlni reporter
lor The Timet goes where he pleatet,
when he pleatet, in search at odd stories
about this and that.
r)RT WORTH, Tex., April 1.
Billy Rose looked small and
white among all those tall Texans.
It’s a long way from Broadway to a
Texas ranch.
He had on a bright blue suit, and
a wide-brimmed Stetson that Amon
Carter had given him. And he's only
five foot three, you knov.
He seemed timid, too. But that’s
just his way, I guess, for he isn't
really. He had those Texans
wrapped around his thumb. He was
the toast of all the big men who
run Fort WOrth, that day.
It was at lunch time that I saw
him. Out at a ranch party, on the
rolling plains north of Fort Worth.
All forenoon Billy had been talking
to the committee that is running'
Fort Worth’s part in the Centennial.
Fort Worth was up against the
proposition of doing something to
get its share'of the crowds that will
come to Texas for the Centennial
celebration this summer.
Like Dallas at first. Forth Worth
had its plans in the hands of an
inexperienced committee, which
wasn’t getting much of any place.
What they needed was a real show
man. So they sent to Broadway.
n tt
BILLY ROSE came down and
looked around. In two days
he had the whole thing in his head,
even down to minute financial de
tails. He went before the Fort
Worth committee.
He talked for three hours. He
had them spellbound. He electri
fied them. He had their mouths
hanging open. He told them what
he could do.
He told them he would come to
Fort Worth and take charge of
their show. Absolute charge, or
he wouldn’t come. He’d build a
frontier show town in four months;
he’d have real cowboys and bar
fiys and hitching posts.
And he’d have lots of pretty girls.
No fan dancers or nudist camps.
Everything would be clean. We’ll
take the show away from Dallas,
he told them.
He went into details. He told
them he must have absolute charge,
and they'd have to gamble on him.
He told them he was gambling,
too, but that he couldn’t lose. His
whole future depended on it, he
said. It would be bigger than his
“Jumbo.”
tt tt tt
HE told them he would think up
a catch phrase that would
draw people here by the millions.
Something like “Dallas for edu
cation, Fort Worth for entertain
ment.” That wouldn’t be it exactly,
but that was the idea; he’d polish
it up later.
He told them that if he didn’t
put on a show that would make
every one who saw it go back home
and tell five other people they must
see it, then his show would be a
failure.
He told them he would do the
job for SIOO,OOO salary, and a mil
lion to work with. When he sat
down they hired him, and consid
ered themselves lucky.
I sat on the edge of a feed trough
out behind the ranch barn, and
talked with the skyrocket from
Broadway. I asked if he had been
in Texas before.
“Oh, yes,” he said. “I tramped
all over Texas when I was 20. Made
little towns that nobody ever heard
of.”
“Do you think people may not
like the idea of a Broadway hot
shot putting on a Wild West show?”
“I told them they’d just have to
have confidence in me. I know the
Southwest well enough.”
tt a tt
HE has just three months to do
what he considers a bigger job
than “Jumbo.” He must have
“Frontier Town” open by the Fourth
of July. He will build it on a great
open space, a sort of city commons
not far west of Fort Worth’s busi
ness center.
Fort Worth is all agog. It sees
itself coming from far behind to
take a place right alongside Dallas
in the Centennial Celebration. And.
as they say, a “little Jew boy from
Broadway will do it.”
It seems ironical. And yet. You
remember “Billy the Kid,” the
Southwest’s most glamorous bad
man, who killed 20 men before he
was 20 years old? The tough two
gun murderer who was the front
page on the Southwest’s big volume
of outlaws. Know where he came
from? Brooklyn!
By George Clark