Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-13
THE REFEREE
kidding
(By Albert Applet

Kidding
Antony Spezia. who weighs Ssb
pounds, left home in Newark, N. J.,
for a visit with his folks in Sicily.
, Coming back on the ocean liner, jest
ing told him: Haven't
YOU heard the news? While you were
away Congress passed a law-they're
not letting anybody weighing over
800 enter the United States"
For q week Tony worked tooth
and nail to take off s6 pounds. He
starved himself. He a up and
down the ships deck in the hot sun,
until he almost collapsed, At Ellis
| island they told him he's been
hoaxed. He's happy now, somewhere
in Ohio.
Don't set Tony down as an easy
mark. He knows America, has lived
here years. And maybe it's not as
! improbable as some of us think, that
Congress might pass such a law.
You never can tell what they'll do
next, in Washington.
Japan
Japan Is unable to sell to other
countries s much as she is buying
from them. In one month the "ad-
verse trade balance against her is
close to 12a million dollars. That
| means, going in the hole at the rate
of about one and a half billion dol
lars a year.
This little bit of statistics will have
a lot to do with shaping Japanese
diplomacy in the next few years. We
Americans also are importing more
than we are exporting. The fiag
follows trade.
Phones
Back in 1910 there were less than
six million telephones in the United
States. Now there are over IA mil
lions, and increasing at the rate of
0 $1,000 a year.
In 1885 they'll be writing editor
ials about a similar increase in radio.
An odd psychological angle to the
phone situation: The number of
phones Is less than three times as
many as in 1910, but the number
of daily phone conversations has
multiplied by nearly seven. Cen
trail" makes about 40 million phone
connections a day, in America, which
makes one marvel that her mistakes
aren't more instead of fewer.
Farmer
The farmer has succeeded as a
producer, but he has failed as a mar
keter, says Walton Peteet of Ameri-
can Farm Bureau Federation. He
thinks cooperative marketing Will
help a lot.
More than any other industry
farming is regulated by the law OF
supply and demand. The good
roads movement was started to get
a better market for the farmer and
better prices for the But
when the consumer motors out to
deal directly with the source OF pro-
duction he usually has to pay city
prices, or close to them. Back OF
this is a principle that retards elm
ination of the middleman.
Suicides
About 16, 00 Americans committed
suicide last year, according to in
surance stacticians. 1t compareT
with around 10000 murders.
The suicide rate was 10 out OF
every 100000 population. Figur-
ing it on the basis of lifetimes, sui
eide apparently ends about n life
out of every $50. 1t is a futile at
tempt to escape from the unescap-
able, for we take our troubles with
Us when we pass over.
Marriage
A pretty midget, weight So pounds
announced that she would marry a
man who tips the beam at 206. They
took out a license.
Pondering which, we reflected that
such a marriage would be the work.
ing of q basic natural ~law-nature
evening things up, restoring the bal
ance, the same as big women marry
ing little men, Beauty mating with
the Beast, and similar contrast of
emotion, intellect and character.
But our philosophical bubble was
exploded when the press agent re-
ported the marriage called off. He
got some free advertising. Most
things of life are so simple they are
obvious, but generally people compli-
cate them by attempting to find
mysterious hidden principles and
forces that do not exist. That's why
shortcut thinking is rare.