The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-05-14
BRITISH PUBLIC GETS ONLY SILLY REPORTS
 FROM UNITED STATES
Newspapers Feature Freak Happenings in America. Delight in RidicuIing Prohi-
 bition and Think It a Failure
By NORMAN Fl. WATSON Special Correspondent of The Age Herald fCepyright. 1929. by The Age Herald

space and position allotted it, the most important recent dispatch from the United States of America was one dealing with the beard growing con- test in Sacramento, Cal. In the weeks preceding, right back to the Arbuekle
 trials and the Washington confer ence, the bulk of the live news from the other side had to do with the ex- ploits of bootieggers. The good old U. s. 4. IS curious country, looked at through the telescope provided by the saffron press of Great Britain crime waves dope raids, illiterate old Scotch Americans who leave seven million dollars to Glasgow nephews who had forgotton their existence; a younger generation utterly de- moralized by clandestine drinking Of wood alcohol; dentists who extract teeth 10 the tune of photographed jazz: 8 nationwide organization of girls who call themselves the Drift ers'-meaning l suppose the Shift CTS" who base their solidarity on their terrific young desires suggest.
 If a sacramento.barber should hap pen 10 drown himself in the river at least 10 London dailies would get out extras. I can see the headlines: Tragedy of the west, sad end of California clipper--same of un- shayen.s-then in smaller type: "Whiskers poor substitute for whis7 ky; preparation for dry festival brings deathl'
 There would be a prohibition angle certainly. There is prodieious ap- petite for silly, not to say fakod news oe bo consequences of prohibition are mani festly exaggerated and misleading
 Sitting around a table at Falstaff's in Fleet street English journalists, another American and myself, dis cussed the question while the wait ress sarved us with very tall silver tankards of excellent ale. The Brit ons agreed that the popular belief here was that America Is drinking tremendously greater volume of booze than ever before. My companion signaled silently (and not in vain) that another pint would not offend him, and said that the real news was that in the United States as a whole there was so little drinking
 But you see that is not interest ing replied one of the Britons. "A drunken party in New York, a fight with smugglers on the borders or school girls staggering into seventh grade class rooms with a bottle Of old red eye concealed in their geo. graphies to help them remember who won the battle of Bull Run are good stories. Then our Margot Asquiths, our famous novelists and sportsmen go over and for few weeks visit around in the gilded set which has the money and the determination to maintain relations with Bacchus. and they return declaring that every body drinks in dry America. And there you are"
 Whatever the immediate reasons it is certain that the stiffening resis- tance of English and European liquor interests to tighten regulations is not being weakened by the stream of ex- traordinary, hair raising booze stories that your across the cables daily from New York and points west.
 Free Movies on Liner
 Now that the biggest liner in the Canadian service has installed a free cinema show aboard. one need not live a single day without the movies, even though travelling. The liner takes but four days to cross. and as there are to be daily matinees and evening shows, passengers may by prolonging their meals little, quite avoid ever looking at the ocean. The path of the industry is not. however, all roses in London. Proprietors of motion picture houses are complaint ing that audiences have dwindled and are wondering why. St. John Ervine. the dramatist, offered them clue the other day in a rather an gry address before conference on new ideals in education. The ideal cinema audiences he dccribed as "a collection of congenial idiots who have no need to make any mental effort and who could not if they had to-
 Though the cinema and theatre were quite different in kind, he con tinued. their work as educators is to prepare generation healthy and strong enough to face tragedy on the stage again. He agreed that the motion picture had a place. but be- only a very superficial kinship "A very wonderful apparetus, almost perfect in it's workings, is being used to put on the screen the most con temptibIe stories tha' has ever been inflicted on the world; every care is expended on mechanical de- yelopment and not thought to the intellectual development" Another hishbrow protest that will not worry Los Angeles, though it should.
 The sporting spotlight has been shining alternately on Mir. Jack Dempsey, visiting American pugil- ist, and the all-Englands Ping Pong Association's open individual cham pionship tournament, which has, for tunately for ethe nerves of every body, ended finally. A. A. Donaldson won the mems championship (neither a lace Handkerchief nor a powder pqff) by constantly knocking the ball off the table and under chairs, dirty trici but ultimate. mong the crowds that watched the games were a number of tennis and golf players as well as some boxers. They agreed that If British determination were turned to building up a fast ping pong team the time might very well come when the States would be deprived of one cIampion- ship at least. Meantime the game is being proved. In the first place, ping-pong is considered undignified and table tennis is to be substi- tuted. Moreover, as table tennis must not be ciassed with such strenuous games as bridge and billiards, "the hilarity and ievity associated with it in the old days are now severely dis countenanced." Sir Charle< Higham. who presented the prizes, said. 'It is A great, good. clean sport" and Champion. Donaldson in brief speech to a group of admirers an swered sneering critics of the game by the statement that he could not