The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 15, 1947, Page 8

PAGE EIGHT “And We Need The Grain” (Copyright 1947, Mason Rossiter Smith) OAAAAAALADAAAAAAAAALAAESALAAAASAAADLS Prague, Sept. 12 It.is perhaps indicative of the Polish economy—and Polish determination to restore the nation’s prestige abroad—that Po- Idnd: maintains its own airlines, like many other grr gen coun- tries, and that most Polish aircraft are equipped only with the barest necessities for the passengers’ comfort. The LOT line has.some newer.and more luxurious ships, but the plane on which I rode oo Warsaw to Prague was an ancient, if well- « Phere were, for example, no seat belts, no illuminated sign’ to warn the passengers when to “Fasten Seat Belts—No Smok- ing” at the takeoff or landing or in bad flying weather. The s themselves were old, the paint chipped off, the seat backs Covered with a slip cover resembling flour sacking, the in- terior of the plane having a worn appearance. The day was pa \d—and the plane was cold, for there was no heat in the ers! compartment. We were supplied with coarse grey lankets by the stewardess, and most of us wore our coats.dur- ing the journey. 4 . -: Breakfast lee departed at 7:30 a.m.) was served in a card- board Iunchbox, but'it was good—a paper cup of coffee, an apple,. seme Polish meat and cheese sandwiches. The service was'excellent, and I think the average American air traveller must feel a certain admiration for a people who in spite of severe economic difficulties are determined to main air con: tact. abroad, even if it means that for a time at least, their equip- ment.cannot quite compare with other national lines. /The Prague airport is a huge field, second only to London and, Paris, for it js a “central station” for airlines operating in Central and Southern Europe. Nearly every American, British @nd Continental airline is represented there, and the airport terminal is a hustle of passengers, constantly moving through, The'customs ‘do an amazing job of handling huge crowds of people—and somehow your baggage always arrives on the Fight bus to the city, despite all your fears. 5 5 : Prague itself is a beautiful city with’ many ancient -buil ings and churches. Shops on the’main thoroughfares are mod: gm, with handsome window displays. But aside from souvenir icles, such as embroidered textiles, lace, glass, china and tation jewelry, the stores are nearly bare. There are severe shortages in clothing, and ink food—though the foreigner dines very well indeed at the Festaurants. = “As a matter of fact,” said the Swiss businessman with whom I had. breakfast the following morning, “the Czechs are doing everything possible to influence the foreigner. They have held down hotel rates and the cost of during this large industrial and commercial exposition—an at- : tendant leaned across the counter and offered—with no lowering of the voice or attempt at con- cealment—to exchange American traveller’s checques at the date of 100 Czech kroner to the dollar. The official rate is 49.75, but black market prices go as high food. © And—well, look around, as 150 to 200 to the dollar, My you—who else but foreigners like hotel room, by the way, for three us, gets bread with his coffee this’ nights cost me 262 kroner, for a morning?” Nobody. single room without bath—a lit- ; Ifa foreigner stays in Prague! tle over $5 at the official rate.| construéted .by th for some time, he is supplied; This. was a small, poorly oper- with ration coupons for use in| ated but immaculately clean ho réstaurants—he can get all he/| tel near the center of the city. Needs, and more. Somehow, I} The net result of scarcity and hdd, failed to get mine when I' resultant black market opera- eame through customs. But onj tions is that the average zack ordering a meal at a restaurant, workman finds it extremely dif- and stating that I had no “tic-/ ficult to get along. At a wai A, 10-25 per cent fee was merely | ($60), the cost of food and cloth- added to my meal check, to cover ing is prohibitive, But he is en- the cost of black market coupons.| couraged _ constantly to ‘work But a good meal never cost me| harder and produce more for ex- more than $1.25. Breakfast (cof-| port—and at the same time he fee,, rolls, butter) was 60 cents—! faces a future: in which food ta- the “high price” being the result| tions will steadily decline, A of ‘the high cost of coffee. {new and complicated ration sys; ~ “Until this summer.” Don) tem has been set up, with greatly Be; edict American C.A.R.E. of-| reduced consumption of nearly ficial'in Prague told me, “Czecho-) all foods. Miners and. others who Ovalkid-was “well on” her ‘way | Téquire more food“Are given larg- ack to something like normalcy. ¢t rations. - She‘ had, in fact, forged ahead! “The trouble is,” one work- fmuch more rapidly and success-! much propaganda and ‘too little fully than most of the European’ results.” This chap served with ( in the war. the British air force in North untries involved But this dry, hot summer has re- Africa and the Middle East and ge of kets”, I was served névertheless.! about 3,000 kroner per ‘month THE KEY WEST CITIZEN ~ : exporter with whom I discussed’ became legitimate war booty ton it later declared. “Production IS up to the levels the government reports. ‘But you have to re- member that we MUST produce for export—that’s where the Goods are going. | “Now,” he laughed, “out of “Business these days, in this gratitude we have. to use it. It‘ present world economy, is crazy,” is a very expensive method of! he added, with a grin. “For ex- producing gasoline, and I think: ample, we ship men’s shirts to the government operates the! Britain, so she can sell hers to plant at a loss—even at the $1) America, so she can buy some- per gallon price.- In the mean-/ thing else over there. So our time, it is consuming a lot of! people can’t get shirts. good brown coal which might be| “You see,” he continued, “un- better used in ‘our: industrial der normakcireumstances Czecho- -plants.. Too bad you didn’t bomb! {slovakia. has an admirably bal- it out completely.” | anced economy. We can produce | Czech industries produce an! on our farms in Slovakia all the. almost incredible array of mer- stapel foods we need—so few food chandise, considering the size of imports, except in the way of, the country and the concentra- luxury or fancy foodstuffs, are~tion of industry in the western! required. On the other hand,’ part. The Prague Trade Fair,| our. industry,.while we have suf-! which opened September 5 to run, ficient coal from our own mines,| through September 14, presented} must import most of the raw ma-ia huge and well planned display | terials required. Even so, before). rany Czech products ranging’ j the war we were exporting more! from textiles, wearing apparel,! than we imported, so our position china glass, lace and perfume to was good. ,canned foodstuffs, machinety,| “This: .summer’s bad harvest, radios, farm machinery, farm will require food imports on a,equipment and electrical appli-| large scale. To. get the foreign ances. The whole occupied sev- exehange to buy this food, and, eral buildings in an area com- to obtain raw materials for our parable to the pre-war New York industries, we must export. That State Fair at Syracuse, and thou-i cuts down the available mer- sands of people were in attend- chandise’.here at home. for we ance—despite the fact that no must export’ to survive.” : grandstand entertainment or mid-) | There are“few foreign cars in, WaY Were provided. Prague—and few new Czech: The chief complaint heard cats, althouge Czechoslovakia among business firms displaying produces, several’ makes. And their products was that buyers gasoline-sells‘for about $1 per were few. Again, it is the foreign gallon. “That, incidentally,” a’ exchange problem. €zech businessman told me with) The proximity of the USSR a arin, #is after all your fault.” .: and Russian interest in Czecho- “How. come?” - slovakia was demonstrated at the “Well, to. begin with, wé have Fair in several Russian exhibits. large deposits of brown coal near! Among these—and flanked by the German border. .This coal is huge photographs of Lenin z the best for producing synthetic Stalin—were three automobile gasoline When we were invaded one about the size of a “lowest —you see how shrewd they were’ price class” car in America, an- —the Germans came in with other in the middle bracket, and plans. prepared. long in advance, a third in the Cadillac-Lincoln to build’ a gasoline plant there. class. The Russians also showed They put-it up’ and got it into several pieces of industrial _ma- operation: very quickly. chinery and considerable farm “But we. were a little angry equipment. While appearance that your. boys didn’t bomb it ‘oes not mean performan all more often—to really. destroy it. these articles appeared to be well They never damaged it very, Made. | much. The Russian question is on the “Well, when the war was over, tip of most Czech tongues wait-| and since.the plant had been, ing only for the Ame: jermans, it put the question. For he the Russians. They were,” he grinned, “very magnanimous} about it—they GAVE it to us.’ together with a lot of fanfare! about friendship, and so on. | | should lie with the NE every European country I navel visited—there is a deep well of good will for the United States— and a genuine desire for friend- ship on the part of the Czechs. You see few Russian uniforms in Prague, but the influence of the USSR is evident—in bookstores displaying modern Rusian Iitera- ture featured by pictures and busts of Stalin and Lenin. One well-informed Czech, with whom I discussed the Russian influence for several hours one evening, analyses it this way: _ “You must. remember,” he said, “that we are deadly afraid of Germany. You know what we were forced to give up to: her at Munich, and*you know what she did to us afterward. We know that if Germany is allowed to rebuild her industry there. wiJl be another war—and we .may suffer even more next time. “We kicked a lot of Germans out of this country after the lib- eration. We treated them as bad- ly as we dared while the troops were here—and a lot of those people went back to Germany de- termined to have revenge next time. “There are, after all, now only two great powers in the world— you and the Russians. If it had been possible for us to sign a defensive military alliance with you—to protect us if we were at- tacked—there would be no need for us to look to Rus: But in the absence of an alliance with you, we had to make a defense agreement with. Russia—against a possible future war with Ger- many. “Of course, the Russians have} been sending in a great deal of. propaganda. For one thing, the Communist newspapers here re- cently declared that when Czech-} oslovakia called for help’ ‘only; Russia answered; that our Ameri-! can and British friends offered us no help whatsoever, and that it was Russia who liberated us. But our conservative press immedi-| ly printed the truth, so I don't! the Russian propaganda! red effect. e most of our st, it is quite natural that our friendshi West. Fi this reason, we original ed the invitation to dis Marshall Plan. accept-| uss the an to ea A eS TRE cow before that conference, the Russians put on no_ pressure whatsoever. They simply said that if we came in on the Mar- shall Plan, our defense agree- ment would be null and void. Furthermore, grain shipments Russia has promised us not be delivered. “I am quite sure that the ma- jority of the people in this coun- try approve our government’s decision to stay out of the Mar- shall Plan, for we had no other choice. We should have liked to be in it, but we must “have mili- tary protection, and we need the grain.” “Last night an unknown assas- sin was reported to have mailed STRAND THEATRE Last Time Today “SONG OF THE THIN MAN” William Powell-Myrna Loy Starting Tuesday “DARING DESPERADOS” Ida Lupino-Leo Carillo MONROE ‘THEATRE Last Time Today “CIELITO LINDO” Arturo de Cordova, Lupita Gallardo y Carlos. Lopez Spanish Picture Starting Tuesday “SPOOK BUSTERS” Leo Gorcey-Huntz Hall “Buy It In Key West” NATIONALLY-ADVERTISED CLOPAY DRAPE | (For Living or Bed Rooms) COTTAGE SETS (Curtains for-Your Kitchen) 98c Per Pair Beautiful Color Assortment a ——KEY: WEST— = (5) + VENETIAN BLIND COMPANY 120 Duval Street Phone 1042 Jefferson Hotel Building would! MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1947 time bombs in perfumed pack-| Toledo Ohio, An:erican Czech, i ages to Foreign Minister Jan} American Legionnaire, veteran of , Masaryk, Minister ot _ Justice World War I, who was returning i Prokop Drtina and Vice Premier to America with his family of six Peter Zenki. The latter two are ! following a visit with relatives in political enemies of the Com-! Prague. ;munists. This was translated for See ; me from a Czech newspaper at | A Birmingham, England, _li- the airport this morning before brary has what is believed to be departure for Frankfurt. .My the biggest Shakespearean col- translator was a Mr. Protek, of lection in the world. — - OVERSEAS MARKET | 935 Division Street—Cor. of Grinnell St. - PHONE 419----Frank Yaccarino Just Received Full Car Load of . . . CANADIAN CHRISTMAS TREES Nothing Finer!! Select Yours Now!! | Guaranteed Recapping and Repair Service ! a THE PRICE IS RIGHT! Easter rm & Home SI, Int. 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So,.if you are_tired of waiting, tired of promises, and J ~ cat-itself- will be out in front of your home! Yes, if you make - ‘tired of driving that old, worn-out, prewar relic you have “made-do”’ till now, come in! Willow Run production has been stepped up again —and we are delivering now! ducéd the anticipated wheat har- vest by about 45-50 per cent at the most conservative estimate. ‘ “Al gerat many cattle have been slaughtered — and more robably will be—for lack of lorage and fodder. This has put a great deal of meat on the mar- ket. so meat is no longer con- trolled. But it means reduced milk and meat production in the future, for it will take time to build up the herds again later on.” The C.A.R.E. office, he said, noticed the trend immediately. Until a few months ago the big- gest demand for C.A.R.E. packages containing linen, cot- ton or wool, which can be made into clothing. Now the demand spoke with a firm English ac- cent. “In the movies, there are pictures and much advertising about the success of our Two- Year Plan. Everything is 100 per cent to hear them tell it. But then the people start jumping up and down and shouting: ‘Where ; are the goods?’ For, as you have seen, the stores are almost bare.” “I can’t quite agree with this viewpoint,” a Czech importer- —BICYCLES— Repaired and Rented Also in Stock—NEW Kaiser- Frazer Corporation builds four, 100% postwar automobiles — the Kaiser, the Frazer, the Frazer Manhattan, and the Kaiser Custom. Each in its price class gives you the greatest value you can get for your money. This you can easily and quickly prove. The value of a motor car, as any automobile dealer ‘ will tell you, is based on four primary points: Appéar- ance, Performance, Reputation, Year Built. Appearance—Is it modern? How up-to-date will its lines be a year or two from now? Kaiser- Frazer auto- mobiles are unquestioned style leaders. 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