Kingsport Times from Kingsport, Tennessee • 4

THE KINGSPORT TIMES KINGSPORT TENNESSEE MONDAY SEPTEMBER 11 19E0 LEARN ANYTHINGpID YOUV Flurry In Prices Not-JustifiecLBy Underlying Facts Declares Mallon i 1 No Shortage Exists None is Likely By PAUL MAltON (Distributed b'y Ging Features Syndicate One Reproduction in whole or in part strictly PAGE FOUR Ste iSturusunri SlttupB KINGSPORT 'TENNESSEE! Telephone 6000 Published on Sunday morning hnd each afternoon during the week except Saturday by the Kingsport Publishing Company Inc 220-222 East Market Street Entered at the post office at Kingsport Tennessee as second-class mail matter SUBSCRIPTION RATES (By carrier In Kingsport and suburbs) Daily and Sunday 1 year Daily and Sunday 6 months $375 Daily and Sunday 3 tnohtha $L95 Daily and Sunday 1 week Ao TDally and Sunday by Mail (Payable in advance within first and second postal rones) One year 3ix months Three months (Beyond second zone sameprice as carrier rates above) MEMBER ASSOCIATED PRESS The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the ise of republicatlon of all news dispatches credited it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also ihe local news published herein All rights of republicatlon of special dispatches lefein are also reserved Without or with offense to friends or foes I sketch your world exactly as it goes Byron buying surpluses trying to bold the prices up So also with dozens of other food commodities As for 1 meats we had the largest spring pig crop in bistory this year and fodder corn (as well as wheat and cotton) prices have been suported by government loans Milk supplies were so heavy as to caus aT strike in New York state The government has a whole cotton crop of ll million bales' in storage It owns 6M: million bales outright and has loans on the rest Washington sept speculative flurry In prices is NOT justified by the underlying facts No shortage exists in foods or commodities None is likely The ascension is being caused mainly by consumers In war Sever they have been rushing up to the counters of trade to lay in large stocks The supplies or a nation are not behind counters Until these can be moved up from storage a fictitious market prevails Prices temporarily become founded on fever not upon reason The consumers apparently have not thought this thing through They are remembering the last war but the situation is wholly different this time For the past -five years this country (and most of the rest of the world) has been Wracking Its test brains to And out how to get rid of surpluses in commodities In that time tremendous stores have been piled vp stores which can now be released to meet expected demand fully and to keep wartime prices away for a considerable time At least this is the way the com-' modity price situation is regarded within the administration The government experts feel the consumers have been duping themselves The situation should straighten itself -out in their opinion without arbitrary priCe-fixlng action by Washington can Taut a far-away tale of Gettysburg and Antietam told by grandfather As horror followed horror and all Europe reddened with blood we were emotionally like a nerve-end bared to the touch Every new contact with the reality of modern war sent its agony deep into our souls I But there is more and more evidence that this European war is not to repeat -the pattern of the last one Instead it begins more or less where the last one left off In 1914 the soldiers marched on amid cheers and defiant shouts of And Today there are no flowers stuck in the gun barrels The mood of German Frenchman Britoh alike is grifti determined perhaps but somewhat sullen It IS the mood 'bf late 1918 So Americans watching this horror spread again over Europe watch 4t hot so much ih the spirit of shock and open-mouthed fascination that marked 1914 but more in the spirit of disillusion that came in 1919 and which has mounted since Are we to be shocked by new tales of blood-letting who have read nothing for the past 10 years but the slaughter of a million men in Spain and the butchery of the uncounted hundreds of thousands in China? Are we to be surprised when civilians die in air raids after Spain and China and Ethiopia have dinned into our ears for a decade their lesson that this is war? Those who remember the Lusitania can scarcely believe today the way in which the United States took in its stride the sinking oi the Athenia Few were shocked fewer still cried for revenge True no Americans died yet for two days it seemed certain that they had And not a tithe of the flooding indignation of Lusitania days rose tip Why? Because in a world which -has been deluged with horror for 10 years the recognition has become dully accepted that this 13 war as it id and as it must be today The inhuman brutal uncivilized murder of civilians in their homes or on the sea is not chargeable today to 'war as the Germans wage It nr the Poles or the English or French It 4s war hs anyone must Wage it today who elects to draw the sword' i NO CENSORSHIP Presidential Secretary Stephen Early has clarified ais statement that the President does not intend to impose any censorship of press nr radio "for the present at leaSt" He meant Early explained later the United States goes to Well that makes it clear Everybody already understood that in case of war all the accustomed liberties of free speech and the free printed word as well as a lot of others would go down the arain The assurance that there are no such plans at present is good But with the eternal vigilance that is the price of liberty Americans will do well to watch closely for any infringement on it Meanwnile they can do much to prevent consideration of any s'Hih steps by accepting the responsibilities of speech and print and using neither for unneutral purposes No matter what individuals think within themselves inc country is neutral and unneutral action ought to bo encouraged by no one PART OF THE PRICE That the United States should fall heir to much of the trade abandoned in South America by European nations which have gone to war seems inevitable The recent action of the government of Salvador In canceling contracts with German firms fot highway and building projects Seems certain to be often repeated The contracts will go to some North American firm it is announced There is nothing ghoulish in seeking such contracts and performing on "them so satisfactorily that future business will stay with us- The German chose war and must be presumed to have calculated the priee of which loss of such contracts is a minor part They should be sought for the United States not merely for themselves but for the opportunity they offer to build solidly for a future of close and mutual co-operation with our southern neighbors This does not mean prices are hot going to be higher only that the current speculative fever jls soon likely to readjust itself to particular fealities British and French for instance are likely to be discriminating in their buying here In view of their limited gold and credit facilities They will surely increase theic purchases of materials they consider essential to their war but they will buy less of some materials they have been getting in dresses for in-stancme Of bides wool steel they will need plenty but on cotton they -may well limit themselves to their needs They can still get their wheat from Canada Australia and the Argentine steel from Sweden oil from East Indies Mexico etc The South American markets of Germany Britain and France which will now fall into our lap will require some fixing Latin America needs our indus- trial products but has no increased means' to-bay them Britain and Mallon France need raw materials from Latin- America but cannot now ship products in return So there is every reason to expect a triangular credit arrangement may be resumed whereby we wind up with British and French gold 1 But the experts inside here are already working on plans to expand the Export-Import Bank and the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to provide more Latin-American credits They are -even talking of relaxing securities exchange commission restrictions to permit flotaton of South American loans but It is doubtful that congress would authorize such course Nor is there any moro justification for industrial prices to take wings Raw materials are abundant too abundant for peace times No shortage of labor exists but rather a surplus of 10 million unemployed There is no deficiency in plant capacity just the oposite Credit facilities are begging takers Until the 10 million unemployed are absorbed and industry must bid far labor plant capacity and raw materials there would appear to be -no logical reason for altltud-inous prices Mary Howard Took Up Dancing Because Of Straight Legs Now That Teeth Are Straightened She's Actress You can appreciate the faulty ground beneath the consumer-made price boom if you will look into particulars Take sugar The surplus has been so large that the domestic industry has been beseeching Mr Walace Tor a year to decrease Import quotas Mr "Wallace can -open floodgates of sugar merely by a scratch of the pen altering the quotas So much flour and wheat has been on hand that the government has been paying an export subsidy Of $135 a barrel on flour to get rid of it abroad And the world wheat crop this year was the greatest in bistory Butter and eggs bave been so plentiful the government has been very said Miss Howard I took the stock contract not sure now that it was a good idea because for six months I just moped around and got no more chances than an ordinary extra Indeed I have kept alive if had to depend on an wages for the days I worked WEARS BRACES ON TEETH six months allowed me to have my teeth straightened The studio kept tell-me that it 8 could cap my teeth and have the whole job ov-' er in a few days iBut I was stubborn and wore gold braces and now my teeth are straight and they are still my own Profiteering cannot prophesy the immediate economic ofreet of this new war on our own nation but I do say that no American tjas the moral right to profiteer at the expense of his fellow citizens or of title men women and children who are living and dying in the midst of war in That paragraph in President talk to the people last week was somewhat weaker than the tone the president usually takes It lacked punch and it was disappointing because it dealt with a Subject that comes closer home than the rights and wrongs of the conflict i The echo of these words had hardly died When the people were abruptly notified of substantial increases in th'e prices of standard food products Sugar and other commodities took a sudden leap skyward in price '4 Talking about to profiteer is about as effective as talking humanity to Hitler Profiteers do not recognize words if they they would not be profiteers They are interested only in what they can get away with If the government intends only to shake a finger at them and say then it will not be so difficult for the president as anyone else to prophesy the immediate economic effect of the war in this country That effect will be a scandalous rise in the cost of living Something more than moral suasion is necessary in dealing with profiteers There must be the readiness to crack down We must be able to say that the profiteers have no legal right to put false value on foodstuffs Luckily we can see that something is going to be done If there was any hesitancy on the part of the government this first blow would probably be enough to start action The profiteering will not continue very long This does not mean there will be no increase in the cost of living There will be We know of course that a prolonged war is bound to affect our own economic set-up drastically Minding our own business in splendid isolation will not prevent that as even Hiram Johnson will agree World trade is such a complex business that disturbed conditions in one part of the world would inevitably -disturb conditions everywhere But the recent jump in prices cannot be justified on the score of the war There are vast surpluses of foodstuffs on hand that should hold prices on a more or less even keel for the present The jump is a barefaced attempt to take advantage of the consumers It is a pity that when a thing like this happens the consumers cannot stage a temporary embargo and leave the smart boys holding the bag for a while We have had a surfeit of government interference with business but business conducted that way' invites interference and the public will demand it Obviously this presages a period of readjustment rather than wil expansion The outcome is bound to be benfleial but its specifications are not now specifically clear When it works out speculators in the financial markets aswel as in the groceries may well rue their present undiscriminating enthusiasm short subjects and minor roles in big features still amazed that she was singled out and borrowed by RKO for the Ann Rutledge role in Lincoln in She came originally from Tulsa where a stage career had been marked for her by dancing lessons at kindergarten age and prize-win-hing appearances on amateur nights In the middle of her high school education she and two elder sisters were enrolled in the Albertina Rasch school and there the late Florenz Ziegfeld found the three Howards when be looked around for new ballet talent They danced in the last Follies and Mary Howard went back to Tulsa and high school Incidentally she became state diving champion and her coach ballyhooed her as Olympic material But she returned to New York did some commercial modeling and joined the George Wideman troupe of dancers Her vacation from the stage which was to have lasted two months now is beginning its third year When new acquaintances visit the home of Joe Brown and try to get him to talk about his career he leads them into the library and points to a big swbrdfish mounted and hung on a wall Under It is a little placard that tells the story of Brown and his trophy opened my mouth and here By PAUL IIARRISON NEA Service Staff Correspondent HOLLYWOOD Sept Mary Howard became a dancer instead of an actress because she had straight legs but crooked teeth Now that her teeth also are straight Hollywood let her dance a step and currently she is playing Ann Rutledge to Raymond When she came to Movietown Miss Howard had no idea of getting into pictures Or so she says know anything about working before a camera but I did know what I could do on the stage And besides I had a selfconscious little habit of holding a hand in front of my mouth when I One evening she! went to a big party and she was enough of a stage celebrity to attract attention Men -would come up and say sarcastically: I suppose going to be a movie Some would stand around peering at her through rectangular frames made of their hands and a familiar gesture employed here by directors and cinematographers for figuring camera angles Miss Howard wa3 offered two contracts that evening Hal Roach had fairly important role for her and thought she ought to start right in But Louis Mayer suggested that a stock contract would be better until learned something about pictures thought I should start at the Students Dislike Buttermilk Beer Leeks Abalone Okra Mystify Them Even now I have the impulse to shield my mouth with my hand when I During her next half year as a Metro actress Mary Howard learned to act She was assigned to a test director to play opposite actors who were being tested for roles And that experience with so many different people and In scenes specially written for dramatic range and intensity was the best training anybody could have had Mary finally went into a lot of I Jack Robbins Climed From $3-A-Week Clerk In Music I Store To Most Widely Known Songwriter In Nation song off the shelf one day decided It had possibilities and was given carte blanche to see whether he could make it go What he did with that song is Tin Pan Alley history It was and it sold hundreds of thousands of copies Jack picked up another song and made it a hit and another and another In those days before radio killed the pianola and record sales a publisher get rich on a single song Jack had been Jiving in a By DR MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia the Health Magazine The old proverb that you can a horse to water but you cannot make It drink applies equally well to human beings and the foods they eat When relief workers tried to prepare baskets Mof food for Chicago families they found the diet has to be suited to the appetites and customs of the per-s concerned There is no use sending large quantities of herring to Negroes because they will not eat the fish The Jewish pop-i ulation will not eat salt pork The American population is not strong for macaroni and spaghetti The problem of building better nutritional habits cannot be solved merely by telling people what is best for them Psychologists and nutrition experts in Western Reserve University at Cleveland made a study of 63 students in three universities to find out which foods they disliked and which ones they liked and why -The students were instructed to disregard the matter of cooking but to check the foods purely aB to what they were It: turned out that the most disliked foods were the organs of the animal body like brain lung and stomach Next came alcoholic beveragest then shell fish and strong juice vegetables The 10 most disliked foods in order were buttermilk brains beer gin kidneys whisky beef liver calf's liver oleomargarine and parsnips Omitting alcoholic beverages and the organs of animals the 10 most disliked foods were buttermilk oleomargarine parsnips eggplant caviar hominy oysters turnips rutabagas and clams Interesting also was the unfamiliarity of the college students with many substances sometimes listed as foods The 10 most universally unkhown or untasted foods were: leeks -abalone okra endive chard caviar lentils rutabagas persimmons and brains Some of these foods were unknown in certain sections of he country Others had never been served at various homes because of aversion religious preferences ignorance or for reasons of health Women like some foods whereas men like others ond there are definite sex differences There are only three foods which a greater percentage of men checked than women These were cucumbers green peppers and tuna fish Women were familiar with a wider assortment of foods than men but more men were familiar with beef liver brandy gin and whisky than were women Students of Western Reserve and students of the University of Oregon disliked eggplant more than did students of the University of California The Western Reserve students were particularly opposed to hominy shell fish sole avocado artichokes and Italian squash Broccoli was the only food more unfamiliar to California stu-i dents than to those of the other universities It was interesting to find out why some of the students disliked certain foods Some refused to eat I rabbit or duck because of senti-mental reasons One woman stu-' dent disliked avocado because it reminded her of cold cream An-' other student bad an aversion to lamb roast and larhb chops be- 1 cause they tasted woolly A woman student disliked clams and oysters because it reminded her of an oyster which she dis- sected in the zoology class 1 Food Prices Up But Farmers Still Get Less Than Parity By BRUCE CATTON (Kingsport Times Washington Correspondent) WASHINGTON Sept 11 Although retail food prices are shooting up the farmer is still getting a good deal less than the price which the Department of Agriculture has set as a fair level Price rises to date as the department experts see it are justified only by a war psychology These experts assert that: There is no shortage of any Important foodstuff in America If there is going to be a big increase in demand due to the war it has not shown up as yet Ihere is in tact a surplus of food in practically all lines The war psychology is working in two ways as the department figures it It causes consumers to buy heavily either in fear of a shortage or in fear of further price increases and It causes retailers and distributors to mark up their prices for much the same reasons HERE ARE THE FACTS If you have been affected by this war psychology consider these facts: i 1 Right now the department officially lists as surplus butter shell eggs corn meal dried prunes dry beans flour (both white and whole wheat) rice cabbage rreah tomatoes fresh green peas onions (except green onions) Tresh peaches and fresh pears To dispose of these commodities the government is spending huge Bums through the famous stamp plan In other words a glut and some of ypur tax money is being spent to remove it 2 The latest estimates of prospective supply- domestic consumption and probable exports show that this country has more than it needs of these staple foodstuffs: fresh meats poultry eggs butter lard wheat corn rice sugar canned fruits and fruit juices dried fruits potatoes and beans If the war abroad is going to lead to an increased European demand for American foodstuffs the demand is not apt to appear for some time judging by the course of things in the last war at least Then the price of farm products actually went slightly downward during the first year of the war not until 1916 did European demand increase enough to 'send American farm prices above the 1914 level -Furthermore while retail prices are going up the farmer is still far under parity The average July price for wheat for instance was 557 cents a bushel average July price for 1910-1914 inclusive was 86 cents parity (which is simply the level which the department figures would be fair all around) is $111 Since July wheat prices have gone up so that now they are around the 1910-1914 still a long way below parity FARM COUNCIL MAY ACT Much the same thing Is true of the other staples And while retail food mark-ups are' causing the department a good deal of concern the department would hate to see any rise in farm prices checked unless and until parity is reached On Sept 19 Secretary Agricultural Advisory Council meets here to Bee what can be done about the retail price situation The secretary hopes to avoid any arbitrary price-fixing program What he is looking for is some co-operative plan reached by agreement with farmers processors and distributors to keep prices within reasonable limits Meanwhile the Department of Justice is studying the situation to see what legislation may be needed to check With the laws now on the books there is very little the department can do about excessive mark-ups It is probable that out of its present study will come recommendations for new laws to give it further recommendations which may conceivably be handed to the special congressional session that te in prospect for this fall FLAPPER FANNY By Sylvia COPS 1939 BY HE A SERVICE INC REE PAT OFf- By GEORGE ROSS NEW YORK Sept Some folks say that all that a song expert can determine is that a song is much too bad for publication In other words you can lead a song to the printing press tout you can't make it selk One of the few sxceptions to the rule is a dynamic little fellow with Iron grey hair brushed back so tightly the curly onds stick from the back of his head whose round full face and expensive clothes give! no hint of a beginning so humble that Horatio Alger would have hesitated to start the hero of one I of those rags-to-riches yarns so low i Jack Robbins started small and today less than 25 years later he is a millionaire and one of the more picturesque fixtures of our town NO BEATING I ABOUT THE BUSH Robbins has his headquarters on the third floor of a grimy building on Broadway His own office is small but Well-appointed with a massive desk and a fine grand piano He play hut the piano is used for the elite of the song world who come to ask him to publish taeir scores His manner is sharp and executive and often hi3 voice is audible beyond the confineB of the office itself He rarely hedges Sometimes indeed he comes to the point with such rapidity as to leave the caller embarrassed Robbins started in the song business as a $3-a-week clerk to a song sheet jobber who alsb bought a lew tunes on the side Jack picked a BOMBS FOR RICE There nothing like a yoting married couple get-11115 the right start in life a start that will properly usher In their probable future Thus in a sense the young Polish couple who were married in Chelsea England the other day are to be congratulated Just as the ceremony was finished an air raid warning sounded Everybody ducked for the shelters and the newly married pair spent the first 10 minutes of their honeymoon in a bomb-proof shelter beneath the office The shower of rice which used to be the portion of the newly married has been replaced in world by a shower of shrapnel This lone Polish couple stands as a sort of symbol for a whole generation The Nazi-Soviet accord leaves open to mind the thought of Fritz Kuhn and Earl Browder playing double solitaire up at a summer Bund camp A psychiatrist tells us that many disappear simply because they feel they are not wanted Others vanish because they are A DIFFERENT AMERICA TODAY WATCHES EUROPE As the beginnings of European war unroll themselves like some unrealistic slow-motiou newsreel it is becoming clear that the America which watches is a different America from the one that watched Europe burst into flames in 1914 Then we were shocked fascinated horror-stricken "We were like children for except for the brief Spanish episode war was nothing to the average Ameri how -a tre- 1 mendous bit came into being Rob- bins gave two writers the title a another tremendous hit He was responsible for publishing the pioneer rhythm arrangement of a Debussy work In 1938 his firm published the three top songs and garret when he clicked with He moved -out of it opened bis own office and since that day the graph of his success path -has been a constantly ascending line A SURE MIT PICKER -The reputation he -got then as a picker -of -hits is still with him today A few years ago Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart had a song with a pretty melody They had tried it with three different lyrics but it -didn't catch bn Robbins heard it and advised them to change the lyrics again with an entirely new slant A Write to the American Psychiatric Association 2 East 103rd St New York What Is the origin or the pr6-verb the gods wolld destroy they first make sensible for school And see if you can match it with this.