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Show BROADWAY AND MAIN STREET Let's Show Vorld There's Life in Ihe Old Liberties Yet By BILLY ROSE Hon. Harry S. Truman The White House Washington, D. C. Dear Mr. President: T spp bv the papers that the Freedom Fair which was scheduled to open in Washington in 1951 has been called off. I respectfully sueeest that you press a few buttons and call it back on again, and witf four patience and permission I'd like to tell you why. As this lopsided eight-ball of a planet currently shapes up, about the only thing worth talking about is freedom, or the lack of it, and as you yourself- have repeatedly pointed out in your speeches, our people ought to T, what thev're talking about when the subject comes up. Well what's the best way to demonstrate that there's still plenty of life in the old liberties? rHHin,i. facts and figures? cliche' - studded press releases? Rah - rah - rah editorials? edi-torials? No, Mr. President, not in this day and ague. As I see it, the best way to stand off the sugar-coated strychnine be-lrcr be-lrcr handed out by exercise his taste and tonsils as he sees fit. Let's even show them up on the midway. Instead of the usual Chamber of Horrors, let's restage the trial of Cardinal Mindszenty, and instead of the old-hat Ubangi sideshow, let the populace take a peek at a Siberian slave labor camp. ! WITH NO POMP but plenty of documented circumstance, one big ' lesson is a cinch to emerge from the fair I envision: That "degenerate "degener-ate democracy" still provides the bestest for the mostest; that our way of life has got what it takes, and it would be downright silly to let the Commies take what we've got. Of course, Mr. President, there isn't a chance of 'getting such a , fair on by next year, but If the ! right words were dropped Into the right ears pronto, there's no reas-1 reas-1 on why the grand opening couldn't be set for '52. And, according to : my astrologist, that would be an j auspicious year for a fair, seeing j as how around that time a certain party will be doing its darnedest ! to convince the voters that it has a special talent for making democracy democra-cy work. If you think well enough of this notion to get behind it. Sir, I'll be glad to pitch in and help whether it's making policy or pink lemonade. lemon-ade. Of course, I wouldn't do it for free. My fee would have to be the same as I'm getting as advisory ad-visory director to the California World Progress Exposition which will be held In San Diego in '53 a one-pound can of good smoking tobacco. to-bacco. Respectfully, Billy Rose cretize in terms of daily living and loving how well our Joe Doakses are doing compared with the Josef Dokczes in the Iron Curtain countries. coun-tries. For example, in the exhibit area let our big auto outfits trot out their cars alongside a few Russian cars, and then let them dramatize how many man-hours of work it takes to make one and, even more important, own one. And alongside along-side the big General Motors building, build-ing, let's have an even bigger U. A. W. building in which Walter Reuther can dramatically document docu-ment how much better off his men are in terms of union contracts, working conditions and pension plans than the auto workers in the various Commielands. Once and lor all, left pull out all the stops and compare our homes, schools and churches with theirs. Left exhibit an American Ameri-can voting booth with a curiam on the door, and next to it a Russian Rus-sian voting booth with an N.K.V.D. man where the curtain ought to be. In short, let's give the Pinkos the lumps they've been asking for and make it clear as the nose on Jimmy Durante's face that there's no freedom unless everybody can the kids in the Kremlin is to hand Billy Rose out a few lollypops of our own, and 1 can't think of a better place to do it than a 200- acre fairground within eyeshot of the Lincoln Memorial. Impact-wise, what would such a shindig actually accomplish? Not much. Sir. if it were just a run-of-the-Flushing-meadows type of fair But it would do a potent plenty f it were a mammoth, hit-'em-in-all-five-senses whooptydo m which everything from spectacle to sideshow side-show were built around one simple theme: The Freer the Enterprise the More Enterprising the Free men. ONCE AND FOR ALL, let s con- |