A Frenchman looks
at the United States

gigantic moving picture

house at Rockefeller
Center, there is nonetheless
gme corner that custom and
discretion call the “little room.”
No European imagination could
possibly suspect its magnificance.
From the glittering pipes sprays
a purifying veil of water, delicate
as a nylon stocking, onto the
marble. At the base of the
marble, the thoughtful manage-

i NEW YORK, in the

ment has arranged—O delight! -

© efficiency!—bdlocks of ice.

Progress!

America isn’t spacious in its
movies alone. It possesses vast
territory where 63 percent of the
farmers haven't any electric
lighting and 82 percent haven't

a patch of land, no matter how

small. .

In the cities 11,000,000 lodgings
haven’t running water, 15,000,000
jack toilets and a city as big as
Chicago has only one for every
30 Negro families.

To these figures furnished by
the Housing Census, a report by
John Gunther adds these par-
ticulars — 16,000,000 families
(65,000,000 “American citizens)
wallow in these lodgings that
the government has labeled in-
adequate and of which the ap-
pointments are well below the
minimum health requirements.

Now it would seems that these
little deficiencies should be com-
pensated by some comforting
news. It’s to this end that the
secial column conducted by Prin-
cess Conchita Sapulveda Pigna-
tellis in the Los Angeles Exam-
iner, applies itself; “Immediately
upon a , She (Lady Mendl)
proposes to restore her marvel-
ous villa at Versailles (France)
to all its prewar brilliance, and to
make a comfortable residence of
it for Sir Charles and herself. She
will be able in this way to provide
& measure of work for the peo-
ple and peasants of the neighb-
borhood who, actually, are. really
hungryi” S

This marvelous villa, what a
treat for the hungry French
neighborhood. And, in addition
to the Marshall Plan, what bet-
ter credit can be accorded us
than that which Lady Mendi en-
joys ? ‘

e
a democracy as liberal as that

- of the U.S., houses can erect
themselves. That provides plenty
of room for gigantic advertise-.
ments and billboards which: coun-

sel, suggest, order: “Eat Swift's .
“Drink Coca-Cola {" -

Sausages !”
“Smoke Lucky Strikes !” “Isn’t it
great to be American!” ........

In the deserts of California, on
the infinite plains. of Iowa, on
the sharp peaks of Arizona, in the
deep streets of New York, pub-
licity marks the rhythm of. the
course of American life. <

And statistics prove the incon-
testable success of this luxuriant

publicity. In one year Americans }
Spent $700,000,000 on. cosmetics,:

Swallowed 1,115,000,000 litres of
ice .cream, imbibed 760,000,000
litres of spirits at a value of $7,-
000,000,000.. There is joy! ae
Do you doubt, after this, that
the environment is healthy?
e
_ igen for the Democratic Party !
Vote for the Republican Party!
Smith or Brown, rid the city of
its filth.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 1948

@ Last spring Jean
Wetzler, a French
writer, toured the U.S.
His notes, published
in Action, reflect

what amuses and

amazes Europeans.

The garbage pail has become
the password, one may even say:
the pledge, of the election cam-
paign. It’s as if the principle
industrial centers — Pittsburgh,
Buffaulo, Akron or Philadelphia
are bathing in their own refuse.

A certain municipal councillor
of Buffalo declares: “In our city
the rats lift the pot covers.” Rich-
ard I. Frankenstein, who was
candidate for mayor of Detroit
confirms: “Our city is the capital
of the rats,”

And an accredited diplomat of
the UN reports: “In April, 1947, in
Detroit I saw the leavings of the
Christmas trees rotting in front
of the workers” hovels. Above all
this rubbish loomed a gigantic

advertisement which represented |

Christ saying: ‘You have enough
to be happy!’ Under the versa
the name of a nationally known
brassiere flaunted itself” !

@
ISSISSIPPI! Cotton and Negro
spirituals! White landlords

who are immensely rich and negro
families who earn $20 a month.

Under the portico of his white
house, the late Senator Bilbo ig
being interviewed by a British
journalist.

“How many inhabitants are
there in your state?” asks the
journalist.

“Who eat or who vote?” an-
swered Bilbo.

Because, in the state of Missis-
sippi, the constitution gives the
right to vote to 1,250,000 citizens,
only 180,000, less than 15 percent,

voted in 1946. For Bilbo—that
g0es without saying.

More than a million electors
have no access to the polls, be-
cause they aren’t able to pay the
poiltax. The polltax is one of the
taxes so high that the plantation
workers, especially the negroes,
aren't able to meet it.

The: proceeding is undoubtedly:
unconstitutional, but so effective,

e

TATISTICS ! Statistics! Some
of them are so heady that they
befuddle. the American, like the
smell, of whisky or the sight of
Rita Hayworth’s breasts. This
one, for example: Chewing gum

annually consumed in. the 48.

states of the Union would, if prop-
erly drawn out, make a belt that
would encircle the globe at the
equator. me
There are quantities of. other
statistics, doubtless less thrilling,
perhaps more instructive, cer-
tainly as astonishing. Here are
several specimens: © : ‘
The vital minimum established
by the less audicious calculations
of officials staticians, for a family
of four persons in 1946 was $3,576
a year. Of 46,000,000 families, 20
percent had an annual income
less than -$1,000; 47 percent less
than $2,000; 70 percent an income
of less than $3,0000; and _ only
three percent enjoy an income
of more than $5,000. ;
About 13.9 percent of all
draftees were illiterate and al-
Most 3,000,000 adults have never
attended school” (John Gunther).
“Forty million persons have no

health service at all available”
(declaration made June 3, 1947,
by Thomas Parron, medical head
of the Public Health Bureau).

“The scholastic establishments
are in a deplorable state through-
out the country. It would take
nearly $5,000,000,000” (New York
Times, January 10, 1947).

“The families whose annual in-
come is less than $3,000 are not
able to meet the expense of a
major illness. This year (1939)
the income of.% percent of the
families was less than this
amount” (report of the Ameri-
can Medical Association).

That’s why Evans Clarke, presi-
dent of an advertising agency,
announces during the course of a
press ¢onference on April 23, 1947:
“The Advertising Council will in-
vest $100,000,000 in a campaign to
prove that the American economic

system has given us the highest
standard of living and the greatest.
liberty in the world.”

Clarke has faith.

; , “4
By JEAN WETZLER

ND Cardinal’ Spellman, too,

overcome with great pity and a
holy zeal with regard to the op-
pressed people, the Archbishop of
New York orders a crusade so
that May Day, 1947, be celebrated
with all the pomp and fervor de-
sirable.

Through the Daily Mirror, the
blessed Father requires of all his
faithful on April 18: “Prayers for
the liberation of the Russian peo-
ple and for the conversion of
their Communist leaders. . . . St.
Patrick’s Cathedral will be the
focus of this action, with a spe-
cial service of 25 minutes at 7:15
p.m.”

While awaiting the conversion
of these Communist leaders, Car-

dinal Spellman blesses the recon-
version of American factories,

1 Nasa another tale of crisis.

His name was Lloyd Gaines. He
felt in himself the stuff and the
urge to be a lawyer. He applied

for admission to the University
of Missouri. He was refused. It
is true that Lloyd Gaines was
black.

The young man submitted his
case to the Supreme Court who
declared the decision of the uni-
versity unconstitutional The
University of Missouri bowed be-
fore their judgment.

It founded a new faculty of law,
especially, exclusively for the only
student, Lloyd Gaines.

' Her name was Lucille Bluford,

She had a great desire for the
profession of journalism and de-
cided to enroll in the University

of Texas. She was refused, It °

was true that Lucile Bluford was
black.

The young girl appealed, she,
too, to the Supreme Court who

rendered the same decision ag be--

fore. The University of Texas
also bowed before the judgment,

It abolished the school of jour-
nalism.

Soft drinks ruin your teeth

By DYSON CARTER

 bperitad time you quench your
thirst with a popular soft-

drink, you wash away part of
your teeth. 3 ;
The medical scientist who
made. this discovery four years
ago was Dr. C. M. McCay of
Cornell University. In 1943, Dr.
McCay was serving with the
U.S. Navy on a small Pacific
Island. He was trying to im-
prove the meals served in the
little mess hall. He also studied
what the sailors ate in be-
tween meals. Candy and soft
drinks, mostly. So Dr. McCay
started some detective work.
He did a very simple experi-
ment. He .got some human teeth
that had been taken out by Navy
dentists. He put them in soft
drinks and let them stand. In
two days the teeth were soft-
ened, completely ruined!
Maybe this wouldn’t happen
to living teeth in the mouth.
So Dr. McCay fed soft-drinks
to healthy laboratory animals.
Within two to eight weeks of
this “refreshment” the . hard
enamel of the animal teeth had

been partly dissolved by the
drinks,

Dr. McCay has _ been doing
more work at the Cornell Ani-

mal Nutrition Laboratory. He
4

finds that lemon juice, and syn-
thetic lemonade, also eat away
human teeth. The same damage
comes from soft-drinks of the
“lemon-sour” kind.

Recently Dr. McCay has found
that well-known chemical com-
pounds, known as oxalates, will
stop the tooth-destroying action
of phosphoric acid and lemon
juice. Any time now we may
see popular soft-drinks being

advertised for their “oxolate
content.”

RECENT issue of the Jour-

nal of Dental Research car-
ries another amazing report.
Dr. L. 8S. Fosdick,
western University Dental School,
has been studying the decay of
human teeth caused by sugar.
Every time you eat’ something
sweet, your teeth get a_ short,
fierce spell of tooth-decay.

The huge amounts: of sugar
that we eat not only cause mass
tooth disease but also are re-
sponsible for a great deal of
“hidden hunger” and malnutri-
tion diseases. Up to now the
giant sugar monopoly has suc-
ceeded in crushing completely
the scientific truth about the
sugar menace.

Now the sugar kings are be-
coming smarter. They are look-

of North-'

ing to science for a new boost.
Dr. Fosdick, and other research-
ers, are working on new chem-
icals. It is hoped that such

chemicals, added to sugar, will

help lesson tooth decay.

One chemical has already been
studied by Dr. Dosdick. It is
glycerol aldehyde. The editor of
the Journal of Dental Research
calls this “the greatest hope for

mass control of caries (tooth
decay).”

Of course it is no such thing.
Such a plan is a scientic farce.
The “greatest hope” in such re-
search is the hope of super-

profits for. the sugar and chemi-
cal monopolies. f

In the world of science, every
monthly brings us new evidence
of the bankruptcy of capitalism,

In this particular field of work, ©

the ‘sugar research of hundreds
of scientists has been suppressed
for more than 25 years, for the
sake of billions in Sugar-profits,
The sugar barons are going to
make us eat more sugar, even
if they have to make us pay
still higher prices for the pro-
tection of sugar - neutralizing
chemicals! Scientists could find
no better comment on such “Te-
search” than the historic words
of Lenin: “Monopoly capitalism
is dying capitalism,”

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 10

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