The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1918-02-12
mister CH|LDIS
.CONTEMPTUOUS OF
GENERAL SOPER
sneers At Vigilance Corps Fish
Committee Chairman and
SCOTS At Lee Todd
FOOD ADMINISTRATOR
BRISK, BUSY, BRUSH
Takes Time, However, To Say
That Meeting Talked For An
Hour and Did Nothing

General, John II. Soper is & stub
born old fellow who gets his ideas from
The Advertiser and Lee Todd has
head full Of wild projects that don't
AMOUNT, to anything, in the opinion OF
J,F Child, federal food administrR!
tor. J.
Mister Child can have no objection
to the quoting of his opinions, rs they
were expressed in the presence Of his
Office force and a representative of The
Advertiser after meeting on the fish
situation in his Office yesterday af-
ternoon. Present at the meeting were
General Soper, Lee Todd, Oswald
Lightfoot, and Eben Low.
General Soper represented the Vigi4
lance Corps, Lee Todd the cooperative
market, and Oswald LightfOot the ter
ritorial market. Mister Child had q
few contemptuOus remarks to make to
the Office force about each of those
present except Lightfoot, who is in
sympathy with the views Of Mister
Child, and Eben' Low, who must also
agree with him as he said "Eben s a
good fellow" as the general airing of
opinions took place.
When asked what took place at the
meeting, Mister Child said simply and
lucidly "NOthing',
The meeting had taken we'll over
an hour. The fish situation must have
been at least mentioned once. 1t is
hardly likely that busy men would
have come there and spent an hour
in airy Persiflage without getting down
to the subject on which they were
working. But the dictum was issued.
Nothing had been done. o..
Nothing But Talk
"cWas there no conclusion of any
sort reached at this meetingf' Mister
Child was asked "Was it only talkf"
'"That's al" answered he. "Come
now, I'm a busy man; hurry up, tell
me what you want to KNOW
81 want to know about this fish
meeting" was the answer. "Isn t
there any news whatever about itf'
"None at ALL" blthely answered
the food administrator. lie was search
ing his desk for n cable on fish which
had been sent to HilO.
what was it abOutl' he was asked.
80, didn't want to give It to
you," he replied. After which there
was nothing to do but leave.
Prior to the conversation quoted
above he was talking about the stub
bornness of General Soper, who evil
IDENTIFY stuck TO the facts which he; had
dug mp for himself without being con-
WINGED by Mister Child'st arguments
about fish being cheaper here than else
where and Honolulu being lucky that
fish were no higher, and his assertions
that nobody in the fish business made
more money than he ought to.
a .. L., % h., IL A Il
vertiser, because he gets all his ideas
from it," said Mister Child. Chow
else does he come to have such ideas3'
Anything But Fish
"He's a member of the Vigilance
Corps,' was the answer. Mister Child
did not, express his opinion on the Wig
lance Corps, but only of General
Soper and Lee Todd, who was "sas-
sy man" with half baked unpractic-
able schemes, according to the express
siOns of the food administrator.
Perhaps, now that they know each
other and are all so nice and friendly
together, as they must be after spend
ing an hour in Ghattily discussing
shoes, and ships, and sealing'wax, cab
bages and kings-anything except fish,
according to Mister Chld-there will
be something really doing at the next
meeting of the men who are interest
ed in the fish situation of Honolulu
But, according to Mister Child, men
who are at the heads of. large business
firms and men Of practical business ex
perience spent whole hour and did
not say one thing worthy Of being re-
membered or passed on to the public
by the federal food administrator.