The Key West Citizen Newspaper, May 3, 1939, Page 2

PAGE TWO The Key Went Citizen Published Dajly Except Sunday By ‘THE CITIZEN PUBLISHING CO. INO. L. P. ARTMAN, President and Publisher JOE ALLEN, Assistant Business Manager From The Citizen Building Corner Greene and Ann Streets Only Daily Newspaper in Key West and Monros County Entered at Key West, Florida, as second class matter Member of the Associated Press The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to use for republication of all news dispatches credited to it or not etherwise credited in this paper and also the local news published here. SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Year ix Months Fhree Months One Month : Weekly ADV: Made known on application. SPECIAL NOTICE All reading notices, cards of thanks, resolutions of pect, obituary notices, ete. will be charged for at of 10 cents a line. s for entertainment by churches from which ue is to be derived are 5 cents a line. ‘itizen, is an open forum and invites discus- { public issues and subjects of local or general but it wil not publish anonymous communi- IMPROVEMENTS FOR KEY WEST ADVOCATED BY THE CITIZEN Water and Sewerage. Comprehensive City Plan (Zoning). Hotels and Apartments. Bathing Pavilion. Airports—Land and Sea. Consolidation of County and City Governments. Many are running for since there is no cover charge. cover * . nae . ai *, | Everybody is for public spending but mest of us want it without taxes. You can agree with almost anybody if you have no opinions of your own. The Mule Is Coming Back. Headline. If it didn’t, how could we become stubborn as a mule? AVIATION MILESTONE With the establishment of regular air ; Service between the United States and Eu- ! rope this summer, a new and | milestone in the history of aviation will be | | reached. The first trans-Atlantic pioneer- ‘ing flight :n one of the new planes to be used in this service began at Baltimore a few days ago. | The route lies by way of Horta, in the | Azores; Lisbon, Portugal; Marseilles, France; Southampton, England,’ and | Foynes, Ireland. Stops may also be’ made at Bermuda. the course, between Baltimore and Azores, about 2,500 miles, was made on the maiden | trip in 17 hours and 32 minutes. and largest type of flying boat will be used, the Boeing 314. These planes weigh 42 tons, have a hull 106 feet long, and can carry 74 passengers. Or the initial test flight a crew of 21 was carrie1, but no passengers. Pilots for the new service are all vet- erans, with years of experience in com- | mand of overseas transport planes, flying the Caribbean and the Pacific. Each has the rating of “master pilot of ocean flying boats,” the highest certificate’ of ability which an aviator can attain. In being the first to establish regular trans-Atlantic passenger service, America further increases its lead in overseas fly- ing. POLITICAL BABIES One of the interesting phenomena con- nected with American political campaigns is the psychological state of mind that de- velops among people. You can go into any -community in the United States dur- ing a non-political period and express al- most any opinions without incurring the wrath of those who disagree with you. important | For this service, the world’s ,newest _ THE KEY WEST CITIZEN HIGHWAY AT SEA AIDS By ELIAS S. LONGSTREET in KEY WEST, Fla.—Key West, southernmost city in the United States in the matter of latitude and also “southernmost-” in the sense of financial destitution. a few short years ago, is slowly but surely staging a comeback. Gaunt, hollow .eyed and ‘starving when \its cigar factories moved to Tam- pa and a hurricane wrecked that magic railroad which connected The first and longest leg of the isle with mainland Florida, | the quaint little city received a |life saving transfusion of blood ‘thru F.E.R.A. and W.P.A. proj- ects. ' Then, before the effects of this infusion wore away, a lifeline to | the north was established thru, which rich arterial golden blood |has begun to flow and will con-. tinue to flow in an ever increas- | ing stream as soon as America more fully appreciates the beauty of the seagoing highway that, stretches across emerald islets and | great stretches of irridescent wa- ters to the unique little city whose foreign atmosphere creates the il- \lusion among travelers that they lare in a foreign land. Not all has been done that, will be done to make the hignway the perfect pathway to this flower bedecked city. The northern ap-| proach from Florida City to, Key; Largo must be improved, as well as other stretches. But this is planned for the near future, as} well as the construction of con- crete bridges over the railroad right-of-way to take the place of wooden structures near the Key West end. i As one sweeps along from islet; |to islet, thru trees, lime groves, : oaks and serpent-like thickets of |mangrove, with cocoanut trees, plumed knights of the tropics, swaying with stately grace in the |trade wind, a thrill pervades even the most blase soul. And |intermittenly thru the trees and later from the unobstructed KEY WEST ‘COMEBACK’ the Asbury Park (N. J.) Press of its more enthusiastic citizens expected. Yet it undoubtedly has injected new life and new wealth to a degree satisfactory to those who desire an orderly growth that will not, eradicate, the unique charm which the island city’ pos; sesses. ey Rooming houses of; all degrees, f almost all designated,'as “hotels”, have sprung up ..like ,magic. Tourist nomes have emergéd from their palm fringed shade, radiant in coast of glistening paint: There is an air of hope where before all was despondency. Yet the al- lure of weather-beaten “Bahama” , houses, two anda half story, lat- ticed and porticoed homes, un- painted and forlorn in the midst of gaily flowering. bougainvillaea, oleanders and hybiscus, still re- main to remind tourists of the days when Key West was the rough and tumble resort of smug- glers, piretes and soldies of for- tune. Records of the Overseas Road and Toll Brdige department, as! provided by R. B. Alexander,’ secretary to the board of commis- | sioners, reveal.a constantly in- creasing flow of traffic to Key West. Alexander, summer resi- dent of Asbury Park for years, survived the’ hurricane, clinging to a steel construction barge. It is an experience of which he speaks but little. | The highway was opened March 29, 1938. Records for six months, ending with February, both north and south bound traf-! fic being included, show passen- gers carried as follows: September October -.. November - December January 30,170 February 42,413 Tolls collected for the same pe- riod, $1 per car and driver and 10,238 8,044 | 9,616 19,432 1939 WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, KEY WEST IN DAYS GONE BY Happeni 3 Here Just Ten Years Ago Today As Taken From The Files Of The Citizen The Citizen is in receipt of a; telegram from Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, congressman from the fourth congressional _ district, relative to the bill appropriating funds for the eradication of the Mediterranean fruit fly having, just been. signed. The telegram, ed by “Ruth Bryan Owen”,. ‘signed ‘follows: “The following wire has ibeen,sent.to Governor. Doyle Carl- ) tor: '*Bill ‘carried’: by’ ‘Congress- man Drane and myself: to. presi- dent granting appropriation of $4,500,000 for extermination of Mediterranean fruit fly has just! heen signed’. We are given to understand that the department of agriculture is immediately sending to Florida the personnel for the work and the first con- tingent left’ Washington last night”. Annual May Day festival spon- sored by the Woman’s Club and given yesterday afternoon in the army barracks is being declared by: the members as the prettiest and most successful as well as the best attended event of its kind! ever given in the city. Outstand- ing numbers included the election of the May Day queen, a. dance number by the famous child star, Bethy Kintsler, and the Maypole danea,iin: which the girls were a ee ee eee its ‘owners, altho it once passed. up'a favorable opportunity to do so. And that very poverty is con- tributed to by the federal govern- ment because of the fact that so much valuable land is thus not subject to taxation. much other land held by religious organizations which pay no tax. But, all in all, it would seem dressed in old fashioned costumes. Miss Alphonsine Cleare, membe of the Junior Woman's Club, was elected queen. The queen and attendants were greatly admired in their apparrel of styles of long ago. Music was furnished | by Haydn Illingworth and the Key West Civic Band. Editorial Comment: Those who are rich want everybody to think they are not, and those who are not rich want everybody to think they are. So there you are. Activities of the sheriff's force last night on Stock Island are re- ported to have resulted in quite a struggle and ended in the arrest of Key, wha. was charged with resisting an officer in the dis- charge of his duty while serving |a search warrant. Speaking of sunshine and the so-called sunshine cities, Florida has been called the Sunshine State, and the name is justly ap- plied for nowhere else. except in the desert regions, is Old Sol's smile so exuberant. so all encom- Also there is, ! that Key West, while proving no! Eldorado, will achieve its ambi- tion to become a family. resort, | attracting a permanent buying class. All its accommodations for winter housing were gone before | — January and rooming houses were} passing and so persistent as in Florida. In no other city is the effullent, friendly and expansive, sunshine so health-giving and so as in this city, which already en- joys the distinction of being the “Frostless City”. Thomas Valdez, charged with having stolen automobile tires in his pos: n, was given a hear- ing before Peace Justice Rogelio Gomez this morning an® bound over to criminal court, . The tires were identified by E. Strunk, of the South Florida Contracting and Engineering Company. itish Vice Consul W. J. H. . of this city, who was icken with pneumonia while ir is today reported as des- ill with but slight hope > Last reports receiv- ed late this afternoon indicated the belief that he could not much longer survive. Ferry boats of the F.E.C, Ferry Co.. which arrived last night, brought 44 cars loaded with pine- zpples, and this is said to be the largest shipment of the season. Eases Angry Itch For itch tortured skin that needs comforting relief use IMPERIAL LOTION. Swiftly, it eases the itch- ing of Eczema, Rast worm, Scabies, et je bottle does ete. Money b: not satisfy. Sold everywhere. There's nothing to compare to fragrance of Spring as you '25 cents additional for each pas- senger, amounted to: September October November . December - heights of the bridges the waters lof the Atlantic are seen on one side and the placid surface of the Gulf of Mexico on the other. The day is cloudless and wind- , turning people away. More homes would have been built but for the unsettled status: \of the water question, The city’s! only. source of potable water is! highways. To really get the “feel” of Spring- time...to enjoy the new-born beauty of changing landscapes ...¢o North by bus. It's the best way to travel, yet fares are lower than ever, Once a political campaign unfolds, how- ever, and the respective candidates take | their positions on any issue, the expression Senator Truman says the against Boss Pendergast of Kansas are “pure politics:” Really. pure? charges City $11,248 10,111 - 11,815 20,125 Experiments are being made to de- termine the elasticity of human tissues, An easier task, perhaps, than determining the elasticity of the human conscience. If the present Administration adopts a policy stronger than words but short of war against the totalitarian states, it will be useless to have any neutrality laws at all. This writer doesn’t know what kind of a chap John C. Lochner, editor and pub- | lisher of the Florida Newspaper News, is, but finding out that he is a Hoosier makes | it all right. If tax dedging continues now that the Murphy Act has wiped the slate clean, the only thing to do is to elect a mayor and city council whe will refuse them police and fire protection and all other public service—that will bring ’em around. Postmaster Sam E. Harris has been named as agent for the U. S. Biological Survey to assist in a study of migration: of North American Bird species. If more duties are piled upon the postmasters of | the United States, the position will be a job | insead of a sinecure. | The proposed constitutional amend- | ment abolishing the ad valorem method of taxing property has been reported fa- vorably by the House Cmmittee on Con- stitutional Amendments. The Committee | of opinion on even an abstract subject be- comes fraught with peril. Men and women, after taking parti- san sides in political contests, lose their | sense of perspective entirely. They forget the rule of reason and the proper function of the intellect. They respond to emotional appeals, to demogoguery and every politi- cal trick that can be staged by one side or the other. Some day, in the far distant future, it may be possible for the electorate to pass judgment upon public issues calmly, sane- ly and reasonably. At the present stage of developments, however, popular gov- ernment, as practiced in the United States, ulation. Consequently, the voters often elect officials entirely unsuited to particular offices. Bad as this is, it is the price of democracy today and far better than sur- rendering the right of the people to govern themselves, even if they do the job badly. UNREST AT GIBRALTAR Reported activity of Italian and Spanish troops on the mainland of Spain behind the Rock of Gibraltar'is said to have caused British fears of ‘attack from the rear in the event of an outbreak of war. Hurried measures to strengthen the defenses of the fortress, hitherto consider- ed impregnable, are being taken, accord- ing to press dispatches. A great concentration of sea power by Britain and France on the one hand, and Italy and Germany on the other, in the Mediterranean and in Atlantic waters near vote was 9 for the measure, 3 against. The people will decide this question at the gen- | eral election in November, 1940. | simaaicnicih palais eabicadl | Key West, unique and with alluring | attractions, does less advertising than any | other city in the United States. Both the | city and the courity should appropriate a definite sum—there is legal authority for | such action—and keep on reminding the | world what a delightful spot this is for al- most every recreation, in a climate unsur- | passed anywhere. | It might amaze, or possibly amuse, you to see a picture of yourself, taken, say 20.years ago. The laugh is mostly on the women because of the revolutionary change in styles, particuarly is this true of the bathing suits worn by feminine bath- efs a score of years ago. The interest | shown in the bathing beauties then would produce loud and raucous guffaws at this time. i Gibraltar indicates that this area may be the scene of bitter naval conflict should | hostilities occur. Gibraltar has been in possession of the British since its capture on July 24, 1704, although besieged several times. The last siege by the combined forces of France and Spain, which lasted nearly four years, from 1779 to 1783 (while our Revolution- ary War was in progress), was one of the most notable in history. The Rock of Gibraltar is about two square miles in extent, and is separated from the Spanish mainland by a narrow isthmus. Its greatest height is 1,396 feet. Guarding the western entrance to the Mediterranean, it is of the greatest stra- tegic importance. It was first fortified by the Moors, when they crossed from Africa to Spain in ihe 8th century, and various nations have :ought for its possession no less than 14 itmes since. develops the mass weakness of the pop- | less and the waters gleam with a | vividness of color, a beauty that, one is tempted to write, never |shone on land nor sea—sunlit | gleaming waters glowing with in- |describably beautiful shades of peacock blues and . greens, amethysts, turquoise __ pastels, | aquamarine tints, viridian, heav- enly blues that make northern lartists gasp, “It isn’t possible; there can’t be any such combina- tion of colors”. Alternate streaks lof blues and greens of varying |shades and tints adjoin one an-} \other, their edges as sharply de-| | fined as tho they had been paint- ed upon canvas. Then a wisp of ‘cloud sends a speeding shadow across the irridiscent surface, a tiny breath of wind ripplés the |pattern of color and the scene changes in a magic moment and’ nature displays other vivid colors upon her canvas. | Reminders cf Hurricane | Mother Nature is lavish in her |display of beauty today. From! | every one of the numerous bridg- les we cross, especially the seven- | mile stretch southward from Mara- | |thon, new delights meet the eye. | Yet there is another side of the | picture. Along some of the island | stretches, especially. Lower Mate- cumbe, skeletons “off trees’ thats met a violent. death, stretch their gaunt limbs in fantastic shapes. terrific hurricane of Sept. 2, 1935, , that swept the key, in which) nearly 1,000 workers met their deaths. But man still continues to defy! nature. Buildings are springing} up all along the way, business | places and private fishing camps, of the wealthy. But man is more cautious now. He is building! most of his structures of concrete blocks or poured concrete upon | steel frames, tight against the) ground and sometimes anchored in bedrock. No more are his roofs to be sent skithering into man- | grove thickets and. bedsprings, | furniture and other household possessions strung upon trees like Christmas ornaments, At least) that is his hope. But when winds of 200 miles an hour tear across. Mother Earth, who can tell what will happen? Upon Matecumbe, in the heart | of the district where so many) lives were lost, an monument has been erected in| is a shaft of native coral rock upon a platform of rock. On it) in bas relief is a strikingly simple | their tortured trunks and shred- ded fronds telling a tragic story. Upon a tablelike structure in front; of the shaft is a picture in tiles of} the keys as they extend from the} mainland to Key West. | The creation of the highway has not brought to Key West the im- mediate prosperity which some January -. e 28.536 | February a6 36,905 Undoubtedly Key West is at-| tracting visitors, but the greatest problem of, the little city, of 10,000 or 12,000 inhabitants is to keep its'visitors once it has gained them. It may be fairly stated that at least 70 percent of the tourists depart either the day of their ar- rival or the day after, their cu- riosity. having: been, satisfied, for the city’s places of interest are easily exhausted in a day. There are some who say that this is altogether as it should be, that what is desired is to attract to Key West permanent resi- dents, those allured by the quaint charm of the tiny island, its per- fect climate and its placidity. “We don’t want to make it a Coney Island. We don’t want the hectic night life of Miami Beach and other: Florida east coast re- sorts”, said one prominent real- tor. “We want to preserve our charm of uniqueness”. That attitude is perfectly un-| derstandable, even tho there: seems no likelihood whatever | that Key West could be made a} hectie hot spot. But there is one sad need that many of those in the city realize but are making n@ effort té supply. Northerners who have never seen the city, imagine a palm decked island in broad, gleaming white beaches. { It is nothing of the sort, Palm} crowned and sea encircled it is,| but it has no bathing or sun) beaches worthy of the name.| There are two strands, one a rocky beach at the foot of Duval street and another to the east-, ward, Rest Beach, a_ shallow.) dirty, neglected stretch, littered) with sea weed and ocean rubbish | as well as foot bruising vegeta-| tion. | It would require but slight ef- fort to keep the beach clean, and under a previous W:P.A. admin- | istrator it was. The present one,! however, does not realize the im- | portance of poviding such, accom- modations for visitors. .Could he hear but a part of the disgust | comments. of visitors: he ; might now from the skies, roofs shedd- ing rainfall into concrete cis- terns. It is perfectly pure and very platable, but a prospective home owner does not care to build a cistern and install two! pumps, costing. about $1,000, | when the project for piping wa- ter from Homestead, on the Flor-! ida mainland, seems certain of going throu with P.W.A. aid, with water thus delivered in an-, other year, it is said. Yes, Key West, possibly a bit; disappointed in not realizing the’ immediate benefits it hoped for from the Overseas Highway, on ey] NEW REDUCED FARES— Jacksonville Mi $11.50 Nashville Evanse Chicago ile 15.00 Pittsbargh 21.85 “New York BUS STATION Cor. Southard and Bahama Sts. sober second though is well con-' : tent to be no bonanza town, but to pin its faith on establishing prosperity by attracting to its: shores those who desire to make their homes in a city which pos-| sess the climate which the rest} of Florida brags about. PHONE 242 Dad's never the Old Man to him. Why should he be? What is there “| about this father that is old? His face They are grim reminders of the], sapphire; sea, encircled by! it eaay Be lined, yes—with the crinkles of good humor. His eyes have seen much, but they’re merry—mirrors of a youthful heart. How did he get that way? He didn’t! He stayed that skilled in the aimless art of He remembered that nothing worth while is given away — excepting Time —and Opportunity of which every American has an abundant all costs, he: kept the spirit of youth— worrying. share. At Confidence, Courage, Vision, Action. It made. America. take a different: view of the mat- | privately. owned and: it:would owners will ‘take of, memory of the storm victims. It! their properties and pivately. de-| velop them either as home sites or places of public amusement. Much of Key West's water- picture of wind-swept palms, front property is owned by the| U. S. govenment and’ a large part of the holdings are put to little or no use. It would seem that if @ desirable bathing beach could be found: upon, government prop- erty permission from Uncle Sam might be obtained for its use, for the city is held to. be too poor to purchase the Rest Beach site from ‘ter. Then, too, both Beaches are) jo many | seem that when, | real, ‘prvaperity imposing; turns the Key. West corner, the: | ANMeUSER-sUSER j Makers of the | | It worked for him. It kept him. young. MAKE THIS TEST prink Budweiser For Five Days. ON THE SIXTH DAY TRY TO DRINK A SWEET seer: You witt want Budweiser’s cis COPR 1039. ANHEUSER-BUSCH, INC. ST. LOUIS, MO,