The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 14

14-A SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1952 THE OLD DAYS WERE NEVER LIKE THIS TAMPA SUNDAY TRIBUNE Published Ztwry Moraine by THE TRIBUNE COMPANY. SOS E. Ltfarette Tampa. PI a. MEMBER OP THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Subscription Rates by Carrier or Mail Th An.orIatFd Press la entitled exclusively to the use 1 y'ar 6 mo- 3 mos- 1 mo- 1 wtt for republication of all the local news printed In this and Sunday $20 80 $10.40 $5.20 $1.75 .40 newspaper, as well as aU AP news dispatches.

Daily only 15 60 7.80 3.90 1.30 .30 Sunday only 7.80 3 90 1.95 .5 15 U.mhf AnHi nf rr.iiiaHAn flnkurinHATii Pftvahle in Advance BOOKS AND BOOKMEN BY EL LAM RIGHT BIBLE THOUGHT The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. Ezekiel 18:20. It is, but unfortunately it is never limited to the wicked, for the innocent suffer for his sins. Gasparilla Again Reigns VTOW COMES again Tampa's Wonder-v XN Week a week of attack and sur- render, of carnival and ceremony, of con-5 quest and coronation, of floats and flags, of buccaneers and bands, of crowding and cheering, of fun and frolic. Beginning tomorrow, with the arrival of the pirate crew, this time in two fully manned and armed corsairs, the old ship having succumbed to age and the elements, and the delivery by Mayor Hixon of the keys of the city to the audacious invader, Tamna will celebrate its annual fete, now citizens, has been, with a few interruptions, an annual Tampa event.

In all 38 invasions have been conducted, 38 parades and coronations produced, 38 Kings and Queens acclaimed and crowned. Gasparilla XXXVIII will be succeeded by Gasparilla XXXIX. The carnival was omitted 10 times in 1907, 1908 and 1909, because of a lapse of interest, in 1918 and 1919 because of World War and in 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945 and 1946 because of World War II. The aspect of the organization has been changed in various details, but the central idea is preserved. Tampa, for the period, is the social center of the South.

The King, Queen, maids and courtiers are, as always, chosen by secret ballot, although there has been some amendment in the manner of voting. The King is partly selected by lot. Names of the three eligibles receiving the highest membership vote are placed in a treasure chest and one of these is drawn on the stage at the ball, the winner to wear the pirate crown. In 1950, for the first time, married men were made eligible for King; but the Queen must still be un-wedded. Also, in recent years, an Ybor City parade and a children's feature have been added.

The real Jose Gaspar, a suicide when he found that his capture was inevitable, would have the surprise of his adventurous and daring career, if he could see how his name has been perpetuated in Tampa's Gasparilla carnival. Tampa, however, in this revival of his exploits, does not condone or honor piracy we only use him as a figure about which to build America's most distinctive, glamorous and colorful civic festival. 1 known and famed far and wide as one of the nation's most elaborate and attractive festivals. The original story of the real Gaspar, at first regarded as legendary but recently proved true by research and records, will be recalled and repeated and thousands of visitors from our own and other states and from many foreign lands will witness and participate in the romantic and alluring series of spectacles that mark the recurring temporary reign of our adopted "adventurer, the scourge of the Gulf Coast, the embodiment of our carnival spirit. Featured in the celebration are the brilliant parade of Monday, the dazzling coronation and ball of Tuesday night, and other related events which have, from time to time, been added to the carnival pro- (George Howe) winner of the Christophers Award; QUIETLY MY CAPTAIN WAITS (Evelyn Eaton) story of a woman branded wicked and banished to a savage wilderness; RAINBOW IN THE ROYALS (Garland Roark) a man led by a woman and riches to violence against his brother; BLACK JUDAS (Burke Wilkinson) a woman who served a tin god and ruled his court with a whip; LUSTY WIND FOR CAROLINA (Inglis Fletcher) piracy, intrigue and passion in colonial America 35 cents each.

ZIONISM FULFILLMENT. By Rufus Le-arsi. World Publishing Cleveland, $5. The epic story of Zionism, as a political and social movement, a modern Crusade, devoted particularly to the American partisans of the cause who have played an increasingly important and. in the end, a decisive role in its fulfillment 409 pages of authentic and fascinating history.

"SIGN OF DECADENCE" From Mrs. Leslie Harper Purcell, of the English Department of Florida Southern College, Lakeland: "I want to express my appreciation of your so ably 'standing by your guns' in regard to the book From Here To Eternity, that, along with The Naked And The Dead, seems to be in the same category as far as literature is concerned. What has happened to our taste in literature when so few voices are raised in protest against the constant stream of 'gutter language' that parades itself in the modern novel? Is this practice a sign of the decadence of the novel as a form of literature? I always read your Sunday column and get much pleasure from it." BLURBS Real orators are few and far between these days They are as scarce as real poets I heard one of the few Wednesday night at the Hadassah Donor Dinner He is Rabbi Irving Lehrman. of the Jewish Center, Miami Beach Unassuming and unimpressive in off-the-platform appearance, he is all soul and heart and fire in public speech His dramatic word-pictures of the child-victims of the war, of the re-creation of Israel, of the sufferings and survival of the Jewish people, of their loyalty to the United States, of the need for world peace and world freedom, kept a rapt audience intent upon every phrase, rising in resounding applause when he concluded How fortunate the congregation that is privileged to hear him often! One of the grand old mer. of the press died last week James L.

McGovern. Editor of the Bridgeport (Conn.) Post At 82 he possessed and enjoyed the love of those who knew him best, the respect and esteem oi all with hom he came in contact He will be keenly missed at the annual conventions of the American Society of Newspaper Editors Mary Roberts Rinehart, one of the greatest of American authors, celebrated her 75th birthday by completing a new book May she live to write manv more Harnett T. Kane is writing the biography of Dorothy Dix. to be published by Doubleday Governor Fuller Warren made LINCOLN (lorn February 12. 1809) (By Edwin Markham) Here was a man to hold against the world, A man to match the mountains and the sea.

He drank the valorous youth of a new world. The strength of virgin forests braced his mind; The hush of spacious prairies filled his soul. His words were oaks in acorns, and his thoughts Were roots that firmly gripped the granite truth. Up from log cabin to the Capitol, One fire was on his spirit, one resolve To send the keen axe to the root of wrong. Clearing a free way for the feet of God.

He held his place, Held the long purpose like a growing tree. Held on through blame and faltered not in praise. And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down As when a lordly cedar, green with boughs. Goes down with a great shout upon the hills And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. ENIGMATIC EDITOR ROSS AND THE NEW YORKER.

By Dale Kramer. Doubleday New York, S3. 75. This appreciative and intimate biographical study of the Editor of the New Yorker was published just before his recent death. It is a revealing story of the magazine which goes far toward setting the standard for American humor and sophistication, and of the man who ran it and the men and women who make it.

The author, famed newspaper and magazine writer, gives credit to the four men who helped Ross establish the New Yorker's original style and sense of humor E. B. White, Katherine Angell, James Thurber and Wolcott Gibbs. These geniuses, who hitherto have been somewhat mythical figures, are brought into clear relief. Har old W.

Ross himself was a literary enigma. His four rules for accomplishing the distinctive writing of the New Yorker were getting the straight facts, clarity, casualness to tell it as if talking to a and attitude of the maga-7ine toward the big city and its way of life. The thoroughly entertaining book teems with amusing and enlightening anecdotes of Ross, his coworkers, and quotes from the New Yorker. You couldn't buy more delightful reading. INDIAN INTRIGUE LADY OF THE MOHAWKS.

By Margaret Widdemer. Doubelday New York. $3.25. The daughter of a Mohawk Indian sachem, educated in an English school, during the period preceding the French and Indian War, known to the Indians as Deyonwadonti, the "Woman Who Is Two Women," and the English as Molly Brant, sits at the head of the women's council for her tribe. At Fort Johnson she found herself under constant threat of French encroachment and Indian treachery and also found two men in love with her.

Fascinating pictures of Indian civilization are woven into the action of Upper and Middle Castles, seats of the Mohawk chiefs, and in the more primitive settlements of the Oneidas and Cayugas. PERMA PRINTINGS Five current issues of Perma Books, originally published by Doubleday, now by Garden City Books, New York, are of great reader interest: DECISION BEFORE DAWN i rniii. iir? uiuiiuicLru ill li Liauiiiuiiai DREW PEARSON Fertilizer Shortage Menaces' American Food Supply blaze of dory, Gasparilla and his crew will return to their pirate rendezvous, leaving Tampa for a year free from invasion and capture. The Gasparilla idea, born of a casual conversation in The Tribune office in 1904, quickly caught the popular fancy and, with a permanent organization of public-spirited About Hurricanes WASHINGTON Secretary of Agriculture Brannan informed a recent cabinet meeting that American farmers would have to get more fertilizer next year or the American public might get less food. He aimed his remarks in the direction of Defense Mobilizer Wilson, complaining that at least three big fertilizer firms had received tax-amortization certificates to build new plants, then failed to build them.

Meanwhile, the fact that they had received tax benefits from the government discouraged other companies from expanding. Wilson expressed complete agreement with Brannan's views, promised to investigate. Simultaneously, Secretary Brannan's experts have come up with some shocking statistics. For every four people sitting down to a meal in this country today, there will be a fifth person at the table in 1975. Feeding the fifth mouth alone would take all the pork slaughtered last year in Nebraska and Iowa, plus all the cattle marketed in Texas, Oklahoma and Minnesota, plus all the lambs sent to market from Montana, Wyoming.

Utah and Nevada, plus all the milk produced in Wisconsin, Michigan and New York, plus all the eggs produced in California, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Pennsylvania. Secretary of Agriculture Brannan is so alarmed that he has ordered a drive in every rural county to step up farm production. One of the factors handicapping him is the manpower shortage on farms which will soon be worse than the fertilizer shortage if the armed forces keep up the present rate of calling men. WEDEMEYER'S HUGE OFFER The inside story has never been told, but the Chinese Nationalists secretly sounded out Lt. Gen.

Albert C. Wedemeyer in September, 1949, about quitting the U. S. Army and taking command of Chiang Kai-shek's retreating armies for a $5,000,000 fee. The famous American general replied tactfully that, if the Nationalists had that much money to spend, it should be used to improve Chinese living standards and strengthen the home front against Communism.

Wedemeyer was sounded out by an American intermediary, aluminum magnate Louis Reynolds, who had close ties to Chiang Kai-shek and cabled on the general twice Wedemeyer later delivered his answer directly to the Chinese embassy. Next day, Chinese counselor Chen Chi-Mal cabled a top-secret report to Chiang Kai-shek, dated Sept. 15, 1949. This column has been able to obtain a copy which reads as follows: "Yesterday my humble self, Chen Chi-Mai, met Gen. Albert Wedemeyer.

General told me that an aluminum magnate, Mr. Reynolds, relayed a message to him that the Chinese govern-ment intended to hire him at $5 million, If he would give up his military career In the U. S. Government to go to China to assist us in the anti-Communist activities. "General Wedemeyer said he always has great sympathy toward our anti-Communist policy, and especially holdsyou in great esteem as a leader.

He is willing to try his best whenever possible, if he finds himself in a position to be of service to you as an individual. "However, his opposition io the present U. S. foreign policy is a well-known fact. Therefore, if he comes to China as a private citizen in a private capacity, it will be certain that he would not be supported by the U.

S. Government. So nothing can be accomplished. He also said he could get by financially. If we have such a large sum of money, private or public, it should be used for the welfare of the people in order to enhance the force against the Communists." WEDEMEYER AND SOAK THE RICH When Interviewed by this column.

Wedemeyer substantiated the incident, and also told how he had once tried to- raise $10,000,000 to improve Chinese living standards by taking up a collection from wealthy Chinese Nationalists. As American commander in China, Wedemeyer said he obtained a confidential list of wealthy Chinese, then went to Chiang Kai-shek to urge that these Chinese millionaires make personal sacrifices to build schools, roads and communications. Such personal sacrifices from top Nationalists. Wedemeyer argued, would restore the confidence of the Chinese people In the Nationalist government. Instead, the generalissimo demanded Wede-meyer's list of wealthy Chinese, and hit the ceiling when Wedemeyer refused.

He explained that the list had been given to him in confidence and that Chiang should have no trouble compiling one of his own. The result was that Wedemeyer'a plan was dropped. Ironically, many of the Chinese on Wede-meyer's list reversed his idea and grew rich on American aid, supposed to be used to rehabilitate China and prevent Communism. One of Chiang's brothers-in-law, II. H.

Kung, blossomed from a YMCA clerk to one of the wealthiest men in the world while handling U. S. aid money. Some Chinese millionaires have transferred their riches to the United States, Switzerland and Brazil while more aid is raised from American taxpayers. in any jear having been and there were five years of that period when no storm damage occurred sufficient to be classified.

It is also true that very few of the storms originating in the Caribbean of sufficient volume to call for hurricane warnings ever reach the Tampa area at all, and, if they do, their force has been so minimized before reaching here that they do little damage. There are exceptions, of course but those hurricanes of the past 75 years which have done serious damage here can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In recent years, Mr. Gannon pointed out, radar equipment has been adapted to hurricane research and Tampa now has one of the three such installations in Florida, which means that we will have more accurate warning of the approach of severe storms. The "hurricane menace," often mentioned as one of Florida's drawbacks, cannot be considered a menace in this section of the state.

There is, of course, always the liability that some Caribbean-born disturbance may hit us hard but it is a remote possibility, not a probability. frank confession a few days In a talk to the Tampa Rotary Club, President Francis J. Gannon of the Tampa Electric reporting on the growth and operation of the company, brought out interesting and reassuring facts about hurricanes, as they affect the West Coast area surrounding Tampa. The relation of that topic to the public utility is explained by the fact that wind storms sometimes cause damage to electric lines and are included as an item in the operation costs of light and power companies. President Gannon quoted a bulletin of the Florida Engineering and Industrial Experiment Station, issued in July 1951, which shows that this area is relatively immune to disastrous tropical storms.

The report analyzes the hurricane record for 75 years and indicates that the chances of a hurricane in the Tampa and St. Petersburg area are 1 to 20 in any given year. It is true, as Mr. Gannon stated, that the majority of tropical disturbances which reach Tampa either have never attained hurricane force or have diminished in force after leaving the Caribbean. In proof of this, he stated that during the past 10 years damage to the company's lines and properties from tropical storms has averaged less than $20,000 a year, the largest cost a He said: "I use words mostly sound effects and not their ago for meaning Which cans 10 mina Shakespeare's "full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" Tampa will be pirate-wild this week Manv wish that old Gaspar.

in capturing the city, could seize and carry away some of the undesirable elements that retard Tampa's growth and sully its good name. PAUL GALLICO Sports Scandal No Surprise To Him ball entitled Last Stronghold of Hvoocrisv and another headed The Scrub: The Job's Half Done ALSOP BROTHERS French Financial Crisis Endangers Whole NATO Program original plan, argued that much of the area between Henderson Ave. on the north and Scott St. on the south (between Nebraska and Central) does not belong in a slum clearance program. We' agree that this criticism is at least partly justified.

A casual survey of the area shows much worse shacks east of Maryland just outside the tentative boundary, than in the section near Henderson, inside the zone marked for redevelopment. No plan will satisfy all interests; no plan will guarantee replacement of every dilapidated building with a new one. All we can ask is that the Housing Authority, the city board and Mayor Hixon work together with the common aim of preparing a plan which will accomplish the greatest community good with the least individual hardship. The housing project, now assured, will snip away the most disgraceful tatters of the Scrub. But we need, and must have, a sensible redevelopment program to finish the job of sewing a clean new patch on the worst hole in Tampa's civic suit.

That's a reasonable position the city board of representatives has taken on the two-part plan to clear out the timber-and-tarpaper jungle of Tampa's Scrub. On the first part, a 500-unit public housing project in the heart of the Negro slum, the board rejected the suggestion of Tampa real estate dealers that it rescind previous approval of the location. The realty men belatedly decided the 23-acre site might be needed for future commercial development; an objection we do not consider well-founded. Construction of the low-rent apartments now may proceed. To the second part of the plan, which calls for redevelopment of land around the housing project, the board gave conditional approval.

The condition was that the board would have the final word on the boundaries of the area to be redeveloped. The Tampa Housing Authority agreed this would be done. The Housing Authority's tentative redevelopment plan covers 80 acres. A majority of the board of representatives thinks this takes in too much territory. Representative Garcia, chief critic of the There is quite a thing on at the moment, I note, about dishonesty in sports and not long ago a learned jurist made a shocked pronouncement from the bench over the state of affairs in college football, basketball and other amateur sports, which suddenly made everyone sit up and take notice and cluck tongues, shake their heads and sav, "Dear, dear, can such things be?" You will forgive me if I say that I am not at all surprised at the scandals, the dirt, the cheating, the dishonesty and the general nastiness rife in the American sports scene.

My former colleagues and I were telling you about it as much as 20 years ago, only people thought that the sports writers were spoiled darlings and nothing but cantankerous so-and-sos when we wrote our sacred universities were strongholds of hypocrisy and that the entire conduct of college football and amateur sports in general was nothing less than downright immoral and dishonest. HAD SHARP PENS Looking back to the days when I was a sports writer, (1922-1936) remind me of honest and indignant colleagues of the stamp of Joe Williams, Dan Parker, Westbrook Pegler, Grantland Rice, W. O. Mc-Geehan, Harry Salsinger, Frank Graham and many others who dipped sharp pens into the serum of truth and wrote therewith that the conduct of amateur sports in the United States was corrupt and scandalous and must eventually lead to a complete moral breakdown on the part of the participants. We bayed at the heels of the A.

A. U. for its "expense account" pay-off of star track and field performers, and the buy-back-your-watch-for-twenty-five bucks game in so-called amateur boxing. HIT TENNIS BUMS We tormented the lawn tennis boys for making tennis tramps out of gifted players, and we shredded the universities large and small for their hiring of football players for peanuts and the exploiting of same for huge gates in giant stadia before tremendous crowds, the while Amateurs There Ain't None in which I laid it right on the line and suggested that the whole kit and caboodle of them if nothing worse were certainly moral crooks. HARVEST REAPED Now the harvest has been reaped and there is great indignation and surprise expressed on all sides that West Pointers should have been caught cheating, that basketball players took bribes, that football players are paid off behind the grandstand and that the amateur star at whatever sport is a myth, as far as his amateurism is concerned.

I should not have been surprised had one Savonarola of sport or prophet of doom been ignored by public and authority. But in the hey-day of sports after World War I when the groundwork for the present moral disaster was being laid there were dozens of sports writers, idealistic young men and good writers in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta and many other key cities penning and printing pieces about the danger to the youth of the country in the venality and hypocrisy of the ruling sports bodies. It used to be a kind of a gag to write, "Ain't nuthin' on the level?" But literally, nothing was and we kept on saying so and that eventually the example set by the top echelons would seep down and ruin the youngsters. SO THEY WERE And so here it is, and what are you looking so astonished about? I remember the hullabaloo when the Black Sox scandal broke, but the weakness of a few venal professional athletes was not one-tenth as dangerous to the youth of the nation as the daily example set by nearly all of the great universities in their conduct of big-time football. When a boy learns that a baseball hero has sold out.

he is deeply shocked. But when he finds out that the folks who operate the athletics at his favorite university are trimmers, hypocrites, liars and spiritual crooks he begins to think WASHINGTON The French are quietly going broke, and no one seems to know just what to do about it. This seems to be the best way to sum up the newest crisis, in this city surfeited with crises. The facts, as usual, are repellently technical. But the essentials of the situation are simple enough.

The rock bottom of the French financial system is the reserve of hard currency, less than a billion in gold and dollars, which is used as backing for the franc. For various reasons, including the strains of rearmament and the balance of European payments, the French treasury is scraping this rock bottom. The French experts themselves believe that, unless some way out is found, it will be necessary in a matter of four or five weeks to make an impossible choice. Either the government can dip into the reserve, with fatal effects on the already enfeebled franc. Or the whole French armaments program can be gutted.

If the choice is between economic disaster or stopping rearmament, the latter course will be chosen. NATO PROGRAM IN DANGER This means, of course, that the whole NATO program, which is squarely based on the French defense effort, is in serious' danger. The American experts believe the danger can be dealt with somehow, largely by spending as quickly as possible the $300,000,000 alloted for defense purposes in France this year. Yet the fact that this sort of imminent danger which three or four years ago would have had this city in an uproar is now treated wholly as a matter of course, says something rather important about the world situation and the current American response to it. In fact, an increasing number of the highest American policy makers have been having a hard "new look at the whole range of the American security program, and they are coming to the view that there is something radically wrong with it.

MILITARY AID EMPHASIZED Congress willing, the United States will be spending something close to $70 billion for straight military purposes this year, including appropriations to the armed services, the expanded atomic program, base construction, and exclusively military overseas, aid. In contrast, only about $2.5 billion is being asked for economic-political purposes, in order to deal with a whole series of economic-political soft spots of which that France is only a sample. And Congress is honing its knife to cut even this amount. There are. in fact, two dangers to our security.

One is the danger of Communist military aggression, to which the aggression in Korea, invited by Louis A. Johnson's disarmament plan, awakened the country. The other is the danger of economic-political collapse at some key point in the world. This danger still exists, perhaps even more than in the days of the Marshall Plan, but since Korea we have increasingly tended to shove it under the rug. DANGER IN BRITAIN It is easy enough ta show that this is so.

The Anglo-American alliance is in appalling danger, for purely economic reasons. The stringent sacrifices now being imposed on the British people after 10 years of austerity might quite conceivably bring down the Churchill government, and bring in a new cabinet including strong representation of the professional America-baiters. The Anglo-American alliance, the hard core of strength in the Western world, could hardly survive a Bevanite British government. The countries of the Middle East might go down one after the other, like a row of nine-pins, even within the next 12 months. Yet the United States still has no real policy in the Middle East, and we cannot have a policy In the Middle East unless we are willing and able to spend money there.

THREATS IN MIDDLE EAST Indeed, we cannot even persuade the British to adopt a policy based on the realities of the Middle Eastern situation, unless the British can also be persuaded that they will win on the American swings what they lose on the Middle Eastern roundabouts. Otherwise the British will continue their present policy of trying to hang on by their teeth to what scraps of economic advantage remain to them In the Middle East, with ultimately fatal consequences. India, where the Communists have made Important gains in the current elections, is another potential danger point. So is Japan, where a new economic crisis threatens. And there are several others which could be mentioned.

In brief, some of the most thoughtful policymakers are beginning to wonder if our $70 billion security program is not rather like a 70-foot rope, lowered to a man caught at the bottom of an 80-foot well. For the lack of a couple of extra feet, in economic-political aid, at the bottom of the 70 billion dollar rope, the whole expensive, pain ful effort to strengthen and save the free world might fail. Boy Scout Birthday This week the Boy Scouts of America are celebrating their 42nd anniversary, an occasion which merits salutes from citizens in Tampa and thousands of other communities in the United States. Nearly 20 per cent of the American male population has been influenced by Scouting over these years, and the present organization numbers more than 2,900,000 members and adult leaders. 1 a that is.

Boy Scouts learn to work together, to accept responsibility, to obey the discipline of the group. They acquire useful knowledge and crafts, and a love of the outdoors that many of them will keep all their lives. Most of all, they have fun doing all this. It must be a satisfying experience for parents, committeemen and troop leaders to work with young enthusiasts, and we suspect that on anniversary the adult leaders will be as proud of their achievements and services as the Boy Scouts themselves. they maintained the fiction that these bone-crushing loogans were that maybe that is the way to get along in the world.

And he goes and does likewise. There always bona fide students. The public accepted it as light reading and the colleges looked the other way. I even recall when I quit sports writing in 1936, penning a book called Farewell To Sports which contained a chapter on college foot- ine worK 01 uoy scouting has been much more than the negative prevention of juvenile delinquency, or the abstract teaching of good citizenship, important as has to be someone who sets fire to the train of corruption. Twenty years ago and more, the sports writers of the U.

S. were pointing the finger at the guilty ones..