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Show SlLabout: Making 1937 a Safe Tear. SANTA MONICA, CALIF. This time last year we were all dedicating ourselves to a crusading campaign to make 1936 a safer year for motorists. We were going to cut down the volume of traffic disasters, going to reduce the appalling mortality toll which had marked the preceding pre-ceding year. So what? Well, here's what. The end of 1936 showed an all - time top for deaths on the public highways roughly 37,450, or approximately 450 more than in 1935. So now we'll pious- Irvin s Cobb ly resolve, all over again, to do something about this hideous destroyer which kills by the thousands and maims by the hundreds hun-dreds of thousands and makes our fatalities and casualties in the world war seem, by comparison, puny. And what will come of the renewed re-newed agitation? The National Safety Council will wage a gallant, hopeless fight, various local organizations organi-zations and civic bodies will do what they can, newspapers will rail and statesmen will deplore and the ghastly record of slaughter will keep right on mounting. The Value of "Experts" T HEARD a supposed expert advis-A advis-A ing a director, bound for Africa to shoot a big game picture, that practically everything about his kit was wrong except possibly his rear collar button. It reminded me of the pampered millionaire's son who was heading for the arctic circle. He called in a veteran of polar expeditions and told about his outfit. All went well until he started describing his parka. "It's fine," he said, "made of sealskin seal-skin and the hood all fringed with wolverine and " "One moment," said the professional, profes-sional, "is the hairy surface of the pelt worn next to your body?" "No," said the youth. "The fur is outside, of course." "All wrong," pronounced the critic. crit-ic. "Thermal demonstration has proved that to conserve the bodily heat the hide should be turned so the fur is used as a lining and the smooth or naked side is exposed, thus cutting the wind." The youngster burst out laughing. "Have I said something to excite your mirth?" demanded the specialist. special-ist. "Oh, not at all." said the amateur, "I was just thinking what a darned fool a buffalo is." Americans in England T ENEWED excitement has been aroused in the British isles by the discovery that yet another member mem-ber of the royal family this time it's the young duke of Kent not only shows a regrettable tendency to enjoy himself as any normal natural, nat-ural, healthy youngster might, but, what is even more distressing, has lately been seen in the company of an American woman. Oh, these pestiferous Yankee women! In spite of all that can be done, it's almost certain some of them will witness the coronation, and several thousands of them will break their girlish necks trying to do so. Militarizing the C. C. C. REPRESENTATIVE -IICHOLS of Oklahoma is trying to accomplish accom-plish something which should have been done long ago. He's preparing a bill to make military reserve units of the C. C. C. boys, which would mean discipline and morale for thousands of young Americans and, if needed, would provide the nucleus of a trained citizen-army. Seems to me there is every reason why congress should enact the legislation, leg-islation, not as a warlike gesture, but as a peace-time move for national na-tional defense and national protection. protec-tion. But watch the professional pacifists fight it professional pacifists paci-fists being well-meaning folks who believe in Santa Claus, turning the other cheek, and the beautiful, if slightly impractical theory, that a white rabbit will be perfectly safe among a pack of greedy coyotes. m m m Actors Trading Careers. HALF-WAY across the continent, actors who have succeeded in Hollywood and are headed east, hoping hop-ing to break into the legitimate stage on Broadway, pass actors who, having succeeded on Broadway, Broad-way, are heading west, hoping to break into the movies in Hollywood. It is a two-way traffic which grows heavier all the time. Thus we see how human hopes are uplifted and how curious a thing is human nature, not to mention human ambition. Also it's good for railroad travel. But if the jaybirds suddenly decided de-cided to trade their nests for woodpecker wood-pecker holes and the woodpeckers fell in heartily with the idea, we superior creatures could laugh at feathered friends for being such idiots. IRVIN S. COBB. WNU Service. |