The Key West Citizen Newspaper, November 28, 1947, Page 7

pq Bar ye 6: i - FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1947 THE XEY WEST CITIZEN PAGE SHVEN | ) bombed out shells of houses and|0n the former scale? i ruined factories. Today you must| “You see,” one Belgian told fe dn’ Sales i look hard to see the ruins, for the| Me, “we were invaded in 1914- wee Spans By = Tees 1 | ¢iamaged portion of the city is be-| 118, and again in this war. My| the Caprifig, which bears onl ee Ww 4 ing rapidly rebuilt, with bricks) father served in World War Na.| hard, untenable fruits, but ver Nobody as ever sorry HANDSOME IS AS HANDSOME DOES (Continued From Page Six) on the average, to own his own home, shop or farm by the time he is 40-50 years old. This is one reason for the large signs painted in both French and! Flemish, topped with Belgian| flags, to be seen all over Brus- sells, reading: “Don't Be A Suck-| er! Don’t Buy At Just ANY Price, | irom ANYBODY. Buy everything | at Normal, Prices,” p | The businessman scoffs at this “propaganda.” “Nobody,” he s, “pays any attention to it. For if you NEED the goods, and the supply is short,-you pay what it takes to get it. If the supply r ge and you think the price is too high, you can always go somewhere else. The answer to} inflation is production and more} production. We've got to keep| working.” { That determination to work? and work hard pervades the en- tire population. It is evident in! as small a plac eas Louvain, just) a few miles from Brussells. A part of this town was almost to- tally destroyed, principally by} the Allies. The Germans had} shelled it first, but the greatest] camage came when the Ameri-}| cans struck. in the mistaken be-| liet that the Germans were there. Ia 1944, a part of the town was ashambles, just one series of end m> tar, It is not unusual to see a new front, the window glass still to be ‘installed, the} women and children of the fam-| ily chipping the mortar off the old bricks from the former struc- ture, while the father and sons build up the masonry from the old materials. They are so well:along in Lou- vain that, while food packages and other forms ‘of American relief are welcome and still ne- cessary, when these Belgians start to talk with you, they speak of the hard times they have been through during the war years. You hear little discussion of present suffering. They feel in their b that’ they are com- ing out of their troubles, and are deeply proud that they have been able to build so fast. There are other sections of Belgium which are in much worse condition than Louvain and Brussells, where much . re- building remains to be done, for the destruction was much more complete. In these areas food and elothing from America is even more welcome and_neces- sary than in Louvain. But the satter city is indieative of Bel-j| gian industriousness and Belgian determination io rebuild and re- build fast. f In company with officials of CARE, Inc., an American relief agency, I visited three homes in Louvain. We were escoried by a “secretary” of a group of bomb- ed out families, who said the food ssary that he would not to distribute all his packages in one part of the city only, for fear that he would be accused of partiality. In the first of the three homes, we found a family of seven, two gyandparents, the father, mother and three children, living in a part of a building which had been a stable. There were two sleeping rooms and a_ kitchen, the marks of the war still upon the livable part of the building, but every inch of it was as clean asa newly washed dish. The walls were whitewashed, the floors scrubbed clean. The peo- ple themselves were neatly sssed in working clothes, for y were all busy in making the repairs. They looked happy and well fed. The children were the chubbiest and happiest I have seen so far in Europe. At the rear of the home was a small henhous and a small garden—itself indicative of how Europeans use every av ilable inch of arable land. This one was bounded by espalier fruit trees (often used in the States for decorative purposes, but in Eu-} gate.” but in the course of time they rope to conserve garden space),|” Finally, there is the question] ate up all the undergrowth and which are a two dimensional! o¢ war, nibbled at every seedling as it| variety of the fruit trees we know. By careful pruning the branches of these trees are made to grow in a series of “U's”, so that they can be grown flat against a wall, no_ branches in front or in back. This takes less space. In the garden also were potatoes, tomatoes, greens, on- ions and other vegetables and a sizable patch of flowers . A second home was still in very bad shape, the front pretty well smashed in, so that the only oceupancy could be in the rea This was a two-story house, and the family was crowded into two rooms, with an outside kitchen, a husband, wife and daughter, invalided by poor food during the war and not yet recovered. We were shown all through— amazed again at the neatness of the place. For in the front room see, by glancing at the ceiling, | where cracks in the cardboard} showed some of the old lath with the plaster still clinging to it, that cleaning this still unusable room must be a daily job, for the falling plaster dust alone. The third home was much the! same. A similar size family in two rooms and a kitchen, their “front porch” a bombed out room with no roof overhead, and! jagged walls all around, the tile/ floor brushed as neat and clean! a. the kitchen table. . Thoughtful people in Belgium are* deeply concerned about / America. ® j First of all, they wonder | whether we may not soon become so involved with our own trou- bles (suppose we should have a recession and unemployment or become involved in a wave of! strikes) that we will decide to pull out of Europe and let the} Europeans solve their tremendous difficulties alone. | I have been asked that ques- tion all over Europe, but it was} put to me more intensely in Bel-! gium than anywhere else thus! far. | Secondly, what about Ger- many? Are we going to permit her to reorganize her industry { 1, and I in this. Every time we have been invaded, our homes have been wrecked and many of | our people killed, our business knocked to a standstill. “Frankly, we’re a bit fed up with being, invaded. | “You can talk about Germany | becoming again the industrial} center of Europe, that this is nec- es . But we, who know the | mentality of the German people | know also that once they have) rebuilt their industry, we will be} invaded again. | “If there is a possibility that) America may decide to get out) of Europe and leave us to our own troubles, we would prefer to settle the German question our own way. We don’t want to see them suffer, and we don’t want to see them starve. In spite of all they have done to use, they are ,after all, human beings. But we don’t want to be invadded again in another 20 years.” And then there is the question of European markets. I set this down for what it may be worth to any people who seek to sell American products in Europe. I am not sure that it represents general sentiment. . “You Americans,” a Belgian importer told me, “ate manufac- turers, ‘not exporters. “In Belgium, it is the custom to answer every letter in the day’s mail the same day it is received. We sometimes wait wee! and even months for replies from your manufacturers. | “Furthermore, in Belgium} when we make an agreement to deliver goods by a certain date, we deliver on that date, barring storms, floods, or acts of God which may prevent delivery. If we can’t promise a definite de- ‘ivery date, we tell the customer before he places the order. We do not take an order for de- livery on a certain date and then keep putting the customer off, a: some of your American firms are apparently accustome dto do. “J don’t think,” he added, “that} most Americans realize the tre-| tremendous market that exists over here for your products. It} will not exist forever. If you want it, the time to develop it is now.” I explained that in America customers also have to wait for merchandise, often long beyond scheduled delivery dates, because of unexpected shortages, delays in production, etc. “Yes,” he you shouldn't take an order and promise delivery unless you know that you can deliver on that ‘Dog “f lirts” said, “this we understand. But) With Judge CHICAGO. — Rocky, a sleek: Doberman pinscher, in court on a charge of disorderly conduct on complaint of some neighbors, kept her mouth shut and “made | eyes” at the judge. As onc, neighbor claimed the dog had! frightened her small child, Rocky nudged up to the judge, who! gently scratched her neck. Th judge, after ordering all partici pants in the case to sign peace bonds, dismissed the case. | Do You Know That, Hail is suddenly-frozen rain} drops. In New Guinea, the Melane-} sian word for five is “ilimia,” which is also the word for hand, derived from their way of count- ing by the fingers and hand. Some 90 per cent of Cuba’s lron deposits are reserved’ by | American steel companies. The garlic, onion, tulip and the ; leeks are all members of the Lily family consisting of over 1,000 species. i abundant blossom, and the pol- | len of the wild fig carried to the cultivated trees, fertilizes their | seeds so that the juicy fruits are able to form. Fire losses the country is ex-! pected to be $700 million in 1947. ‘Photography became practica- ble about 1830, was much im- proved about 1850 and became a commercial industry in the 18- 70's. Bangor, Maine, was so-nam- ed by a Rev. Seth Noble, a Maine legislator, from an old | Psalm tune. The priceless contributions of early Egypt and Mesaptamia in the millenium before 2500 B. C. were the simple materials of ev- eryday life; the potter's wheel, metal tools, measures, balance and weights, chairs and table: perfumes and writing materials. “Lip-clap” i word for a kiss an old English The main business quarter of Valparaiso, Chile's principal port, stands:on land reclaimed from the sea | in London, founded in! 1915, is a movement in which} any one of goodwill can help to! spread the Christmas ideal | The rate of malicious false fire alarms in New York City in 19- 46 was 21 per cent. In Palestine on December 1, sunrise comes at 6:46 a. m, and; sunset 4.42 p. m. In China every part of the deer is valuable in making old medicines; the medicine made from the horns being sonsidered especially efficacious as a tonic‘ r prolonging life. One-third of all pigs in the United States, according to the American eterinary Medical Association, die before they reach the packing house. When the Portuguese landed on the island of St- Helena at the beginning of the 15th cen- tury they had with them many goats. The island then was cov- ered with stately trees and a} luxurious under growth of} plants. The goats could not do much damage to the big trees, { j { came up so that there was no| “Yesterday,” one Belgian office that in my opinion there could] not be a war for 10 to 20 years at} least. But this morning I am not} so sure. I have been talking with the head of our firm, a man who} is very well informed. He says| there will be war between Amer-| ica and Russia within two -years ... There are many other peopie! over here who say as much. Per- sonally, I doubt that anyone can make a war now. “But if it should happen, I am} |sure that you will have not only | England and France and Italy \ and probably Spain on your side, even the Germans . . ..as a mat- ter of fact, practically the whole | | world will be with you.” | Samples of Belgian humor: | The family of a deceased work- | on the second floor, still awaiting repairs, the walls stove in, the ceiling covered with corrugated cardboard pasted together _with gummed tape, the flor chipped and broken by shrapnel, the door pockmarked with bullet-holes, the floor and walls were spot- Jessly clean. Although you could man were discussing plans for al \funeral, as they sat about the corpse. Said one, “I think Fa-| |ther should have a first class/ {funeral, in appreciation for all) | that he has done for us. With} | black horses, the best hearse and/ all.” \r ‘o,” said the second, “Father executive told me, “I told you) natural renewal of the forest} and in time the island became | bare of trees. } 1 was too modest. He would preier , second class funeral.” ! “Ah, no,” replied the third. “Father was VERY modest. We should give him a third class | funeral.” | The corpse suddenly sat up. “Let’s end the discussion,” said | Father, as he got out of the box, “TIL walk it.” An American officer and a’ Russian officer were riding in a, Brussells tram. The Russian ask-} ed how many atom bombs would be required to destroy Belgium. The American got out pencil and paper and after some figuring replied, “Between 27 and 30.” } “And how many to destroy: England?” The American again figured for some time and finally, said, “About 45-50.” { “And how many to destroy Russia?” H “Exactly 237,” the American! replied immediately, “and we have them in stock.” ©00000000080000000000000000800008 ©0900 99009000009900890900000' 0080000000000 00600( he saved!” Save-the easy, automatic way - with-U.S. Savings Bonds Sponsored by The KEY: WEST CITIZEN This is an official U.S, Treasury advertisement—prepared under auspices oi Treasury Department and Advert! 190000000060 006860