The Washington herald., 1916-06-13
SEEN AND HEARD
BY GEORGE MINER

New York, June I2-The daylight-saving idea
! is getting foothold in various parts Of the
world. 1t bids fair to be- seriously taken up and
pretty generally adopted just as were the metric
| system, kindergarten education and prohibition
England has been fussng over it for a number o
! years, while its advocates were regarded as
harmless cranks. Now it is adopted in certain
| cities and has come to stay
But it is not an English idea by any means
Our very city OF Cleveland has had it in
force for some time long before London author
lied it, For that matter, it is purely American
idea anyway, although England gets the credit
/ tor it. 1t originally suggested by an Ameri-
and less an American than Benz amin
Franklin more than century ago. Franklin was
then minister to France and wrote letter to a
Paris newspaper urging that clocks be moved for
ward an hour during the summer months. That's
as far the matter got, and French clocks stayed
just where they
Whether Poor Richard was inspired by his
own lines, Early to bed and early to rise makes
a man healthy, wealthy and wise" or whether the
daylight-saving idea inspired the lines is more
than any say. At any rate, New York
has caught the fever and Borough President
Marks wants the clocks here set forward an hour
until October
That won't go. New York will never stand
What New York wants is longer nghts-no,
| longer days.
And that makes me think of letter | saw
from Marcus Locw today, rather from his sec
retary. Mr.. Locw is too much cngrosscd with
large affairs to write letters himself. Now know
all men by these presents that Marcus Loew runs,
and | presume owns, number Of moving picture
and vaudeville thcatcrs. In his section Of the
amusement world, he cuts lot OF ice But it is
only of recent years that he has enjoyed all this
prominence. His high estates came to him sud
denly. He came up to the surface with the
movie eruption. and has stuck there.
The letter head did not have any company
or firm name or even Mr.. Loews name on it.
lust the address in large black lcttcrs-I5oo to
$3.50 Broadway | don't remember the exact
number, but it along there somewhere
and there about fifty missing numbers be-
tween the two figures. You would think his
offices covered a whole block. Well, the build
ing that he has offices in does take up the whole
Broadway end OF block and so he anncxes to
himself all the numbers covered by the build
ing. Shanley'> famous restaurant occupies part
OF the ground floor OF this building but there
was no street number left for him because Mar
Gus Locw took them all. All the other shops
and business offices in the building arc also
quite numbcrless-that is, il you can believe
Marcus Locws letter head
AS ! said, there name mentioned on
the letter head, only very big and black ad-
dress, and in corner artistically engraved,
office OF the President" 1t docs not say presi-
dent OF what what PRESIDENT 50 | suppose it
must mean president of Broadway.
Under the name OF the man who signed the
lett line ,bo
Isn't that grand and impressivc2 Made YOU feel
that you getting State document No
such plain and ordinary thing as secretary or pri-
Natc secretary. No, indeed "Sccrctary to the
President" lust like that.
What | really wanted to say was that the let
ter | saw contained Mr.. Locws refusal to permit
an announcement OF the naval training cruise
for civilians to be displayed in his thcaters He
is the only of all the New York theatrical
managers who refused to aid the government in
this feature OF the preparedness campaign.
| can't sec how thcater manager could be
so shortsighted Probabaly that comes Of being
president OF Broadway. Maybe he has no diplo-
matte relations with the United States.
Commander EYa Booth, Of the Salvation
Army, docs not look exactly like humorist but
for all that she has keen sense of humor She
from Pittsburgh the Salvation Army had somehow
picked up and reformed and made quite a de-
cent-looking man OF. SO Commander Booth was
highly clatcd when she heard of it and tclc-
eraphed the glad news to the former drunk's
wife, asking ii the wife would come on and get
the prodiga or should the army send him out
Keep him., came the answer You are well
come to him"
incidentally Commander Booth says that there
are thousands Of members of the Salvation Army
who are now real soldiers and fighting with one
army or the other in the great war.
Mr.. A. W. Bickford, who goes to Europe twice
every year in the interests Of his banking house
whether there is any not has just returned
from France. While there he went through the
new underground canal that is now approaching
completion. 1t goes through a mountain and un-
dcrneath two communcs.
"ln spite OF the and the tremendous bur
den it has put France, they kept right on dig