OCR Text |
Show Officialism Gone Crazy Again ! The one sour note in the welcome to the Graf Zeppelin seems to have been at ruck, as, usual, by the Cossack spirit , of the badge-toters and uniform wearers this time of the ; customs service. ' ,' ' We read that when the ship first landed the passengers i were held prisoners aboard. Then they were "dog-troTted" I half a mile through sand lo a small, hot room. After that i the "welcome guests" hung around for a few hours while customs officers "went through their baggage with a fine-1 fine-1 tooth comb. " 1 ' Thus the welcome of official, America to brav6 men and women from over the sea. .... What a howl there would have been in this country if Lindbergh, upon arriving in "militaristic" France, had been subjected to such treatment! How indignant we would have been if Brock and Schlee had been, handled ' in like manner in London ;'or Chamberlin and Levine in Germany; or Stultz and Miss Ear hart in Wales. i . The 'European view is that people who fly over the ocean are to be honored and their way made easy. The official American which is NOT the popular view is that they are probably trying to smuggle a yard of lace into the country and used the flight merely as a subterfuge. We can only hope that the boorish handling of the nation's guests by petty, badge-wearing officialdom will be forgotten in the real heartiness and good feeling of the public greeting. ' |