V.gabond Editorials

By Jack Dionne

They fixed a Code for all the animals-so the story goes. And the first provision of the Code was protection and safety for all animals, large and small. No more killing and eating one another. No more law of tooth and fang. The lion could lie down with the lamb in safety; the fox with the rabbit. All the animals signed the Code.

:f:f*

A few days after the Code went into effect a rabbit, ambling through the woods, saw a fox in his path, and started to run. The fox called to him, "What are you running for? I can't hurt you. Have you forgotten the Animals' Code?" The rabbit stopped and looked sheepish. "I sometimes forget the Code, and start to run when I see someone like you," he said. And they sat down and talked over how fine it was to have a Code to protect them.

**<t<

Just then from over the. hill came the baying of a great pack of hounds. The air was filled with their cries. As they drew nearer the fox bounded to his feet, tail up, ready to run. "What are you scared of ?'l asked the rabbit. "flave you forgotten the Animals' Code? Those hounds are under the Code the same as we are. They can't hurt you."

,t;fi*

"Maybe you're right," said the fox, "but in a pack as big as that one there's always at least one So-and-So that you can't trust. I'm taking no chances." And away he went.

*:f*<

Even a Code doesn't destroy the old timey belief that "there's at least one in every crowd."

*)F*

Definite difference 'between our psychology last year and now: last year most of us were afraid to appear in a new suit, or a new hat. We hated to look conspicuously prosperous in the midst of poverty. Today everyone is trying to dress up. And that's how the psychology of the nation has improved.

:B**

Last fall a man wouldn't put needed new paint on his automobile because he didn't want to act conspicuously prosperous. It was the same way with his house and the buildings. He wouldn't paint them even if he could well afford to. With tragedy on all sides and the withered hand of beggary held out on every corner, a man didn't dare to look the least bit prosperous. THAT feeling is gone. Everyone is trying to put on a better front. Heads high, chins up, smiles bright-we're trying to get somewhere.

***

Secretary Wallace says that if Chicago doesn't approve his farm relief plans it may become just an ash heap. Now THERE'S a modest man !

**:F

The Sunkist orange folks report that "beer and hard liquor" are giving their product "strong competition." Well, wouldn't mixing more freely and more frequently with its competitors help solve that problem? ***

President Roosevelt has recognized the Russian Government. But if George Washington were to drop into Washington for a call today, what a job he'd have recognizing ours.

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I haven't read all the details of the Russian agreement. What provisions have we made for raising whiskers like our new neighbors? If our farmers donlt get more for their crops soon, they'll go to raising whiskers instead of wheat. ,f**

And lumber? Someone out of Washington recently suggested that we import Russian lumber and so preserve our forests. Well, if they turn Russian lumber loose into this country THAT will be the effect, and none other. For American lumber producers will hardly be able to meet the competition of lumber made from stolen timber, and manufactured for costs and under conditions that would horrify American mill workers. Turn in the Russian lumber and the labor problem for the American lumber industry will be automatically solved. There won't be any labor problem. Or any labor. Or any lumber. :F >F t<

You'll never convince the railroads that run to and from Washington, or the hotels of the Capitol City, that the New Deal isn't a huge success. {<+*

The retail jewelers' Code defines diamonds as "consisting essentially of pure carbon crystallized in the isometric system, generally in octahedron form." Sho nuff? you know, I had no idea !

:fr|<*

"Don't you believe that you are your brother's keeper?', asked a Community Chest worker of a hold-out. .,I,ve only got one brother," said he who wouldn't give, ,,and the warden at the State Penitentiary is keepin' him in good shape."

*:f*

Two salesmen were dividing up a territory they were getting ready to work. One of them kept making suggestions as to the particular prospects he wanted to call on. "!l/ait a minute," finally said the other; ,,all you want is the cream." "Well," replied the first, ,,what's wrong with the cream?"

And now the lumber world is frenziedly engaged in trying to fix the rules and regulations for lumber rninimum price fixing. And I hazard the guess that nothing that has been or will be attempted in the operation of any code that will present so complex and difficult a problem. So many varying quantities and qualities never before faced a measuring stick. ***

Personally I have been marveling for months at the courage of any man who, knowing lumber, would tackle so devastating a problem. The many problems of species, and of location; the multifold divisions of each species; the various sizes, kinds, and characters of mills; the marketing problems, trying, for example, to riake fair rules covering lumber ready for marketing twenty-four hours after it leaves the stump, and lumber that requires years to dry; a thousand and one difficulties that they are bumping into head-on every day now, the very consideration of which is dizzying to my thick skull.

Regardless of how wisely and painstakingly the rules may be created and placed in execution, the opportunities for "chiseling" will be as innumerable as the sands on the. seashore. The loop-holes can never be plugged. The will of the lumber people themselves to put the thing into operation and keep it tight, must and will be the hope of making it go. Thousands of good men and true all over the country today are apptying their brains and ingenuity to the problem. But its best hope of successful operation lies in implanting throughout the industry the sentiment that the thing must succeed, and that he who seeks loopholes for its destruction is the enemy of the industry. ***

God knows I rejoice at every man who wants a job and gets one, regardless of what or where or how. And the

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