Vagabond Editoriafs

By Jack Dionne

"King David and King Solomon Led merry, merry lives, With many, many lady friends And many, many wives; But when old age crept over themWith many, many qualms, King Solomon wrote the proverbs And King David wrote the psalms."

Here is the same ,r;al ,r,lr" ,"r,uralized: "Youth should heed the older_witted, When they say, don't go too far, Now their sins are all committed, Lord ! How virtuous they are !"

-Wilhelm Busch.

But here is one (my own) that all you other oldsters will agree with, I think:

"Age is a quality of mind":

If all the "dope" that you can ffnd, Just leaves you cold;

If the news you read and the things you hear Sour your tummy and spoil your beer

And you growl and groan when you'd like to cheer_ You're getting old.

As a matter of fact J" ;ja be great times that we are living in-never a normal mo,ment-if it were not so hard on the nervous systems of those who are on the wrong side of fifty. Maybe its better this way. The youngsters, who are going to have to pay for what we are going through, haven't the imagination to be much im_ pressed. And the oldsters, whenever I hear them discussing in deep wrath (and that's aII I ever hear nowadays) those things they have come to fear so much, f recall a story that makes me grin.

During the World War a certain regiment was ordered to go "over the top" at dawn. In the bleak cold barracks they had been awakened and were preparing in black dark_ ness that just precedes the day, for their adventure. Some youngster's voice came from the black void saying: ,,Oh Lord ! How my head aches !" And from a spot not far distant another young soldier replied: .,What do you care? You'll soon be dead."

I've tried that answe, -r*r, ,"tely to a number of my old friends who were leaning against the ,,wailing wall" and everyone of them grinned. Nothing like a sense of humor. James Swinnerton tells about the old days when he lived in the Painted Desert and eastern tenderfoot sufferers with T. B. came out there for their health. They used to meet the newcomer at the train with an fndian Band, and as the sick man stepped off the train the band played "Nearer My God To Thee." Swinnerton says that every sick man that saw the joke and laughed, got well. There's a thought there.

Found a note at the O";- or*" ,.*a". from an old friend that read: "Do you still make that strong cofiee at your house?" Yep. The same and lots of it. However, while f use the Hiram Smith recipe, ,'A little water and a Hell of a lot of coffee," I do NOT subscribe to the recipe of the famous Tallyrand, who said he drank his coffee .,Black as the Devil, Hot as Hell, Pure as an angel, Sweet as love." I put cream in mine.

Which reminds me that while we have become a nation of coffee drinkers, we are not the champions as yet, by a long shot. Sweden drinks the most coffee per capita, Denmark is second, and the U. S. is third. The South consumes several times as much coffee per capita as the East, North, or West. Millions of Southern people drink powerful strong coffee all day long. Lunch counters in the South are heavily populated all through the "between meals" hours by coffee drinkers. I've been in many cities in this country where no amount of money would buy a decent cup of coffee. They just don't understand the coffee habit. so they don't make decent coffee. And, vice versa, people who donlt get decent coffee, will never develop the coffee habit.

The modern coffee .rrr, ,1"" Lri" ,,,""n for coffee drinkers, by making it possible for any cafe or public eating place that will buy good coffee, use enough of it, and follow the directions furnished by the makers of the equipment, to furnish its custorners good coffee at all hours of the day.

And, while there is a lot of Blah in recent coffee advertising like there is in cigarette advertising, yet coffee advertising has built the coffee business by using every effort to see that the public gets good coffee and instructions for properly using it.

Now we have the new farm regulation bill. I have not rcad it. I do not intend to. The smartest man I know in the cotton business tells me I could not possibly understand it, and I'm taking his word for it. It will require, according to the Congressional debates on the subject, three hundred thousand people to operate the law. Mr. Henry Wallace, of "Ioway" will manage it. He will be able to fix the price of everything we eat from orange juice to apple pie. And what a swell little "Bureau" three hundred thousand will make. A full grown political party all by itself.

Cotton friend o,ro."J J"": $'as one of many who advispa tneir representatives in Congress that the new agriculturFl bill would do untold damage to the cotton farmers and codton business. Which slowed the progress of the Bill not in the least. So, having no choice in the matter' we will wait and watch hopefully. His pain eased by checks he lnever did anything to earn, the American farmer has be{n sitting back watching his foreign markets disappear, on him in ever increasing quantities at prices he can never hope to meet.

The wage and hour bill is in the hands of the Rules Committee of the House. If it ever gets out of that Committee, I fear it will be passed. And if it is passed, industry will be turned over to the politicians. And, Mister, what another sweet Bureau will manipulate that law. However, the entire South is up in arms against the Bill, and they may succeed, for the third time, in defeating it. ,i

The newly revised FHA is now being tremendously publicized. And the building industry is pinning its faith and its hopes on the freguently made declaration that BUILDING will be the next great frontier in the fight for prosperity. No matter what happens, the new FHA will do a lot of good. If business generally should turn UPWARD, building is going to boom. But it won't boom by itselfPeople do not build when distress signals are flying. So we must pin our hopes to such further action by Congress in the way of b'usiness relief as will help ALL business up the ladder.

The National Lumber rri"""*Ja"rers Association and the National Retail Lumber Dealers Association are doing a concerted job that I highly approve of. They are carrying personal messages to all the retail lumber conventions and watching his foreign competitors ship their products in