New Britain herald., 1928-01-14
THE OBSER YER
Makes Random Observations On the City a,,a Its People

of high capital charseA as lowering Of long term interest rates is ,..ak- ing possible the refunding of high coupon obligations at lower levels. According to computations of Dow. Jones | O.. bonds called for .,ay- ment in 1891 in advance of maturity agregated t1.5sS.157.o00. the larg- est on record and m increase of t110, 100000 over the previous rec ord established tn 1926 t
 Building construction. taking all types Of work. promises to be sus- tained at relatively high levels, and : substantial recovery in automobile production is confidently predicted.
 Farm conditions are better than . year ago. The department of agri- culture in its estimate of the value of principal farm crops based on prices December l, places the total t6s5.l46.00O higher than the corres- bonding total for 1926. though etill tb2o,ssb.o0o below the total for 1925.
 The Observer has noticed. wher- ever he has travelled, during the past week or 90, maybe a week, maybe 70. that the stores are advertising annual January sales: that they are selling goods at great reduction, and that tho people are taking ad- vantage of such sales. Now that's all we'll and good. as you will agree. Everybody likes to buy something at bargain prices. whether the reduc- ton be great or small. There is that idea of getting something for nothing that appeals to the average trader.
 However, before Christmas things were at their usual price and those who purchased Christmas presents had to pay much more for them, in many cases. than they would have to pay now.
 The Observers idea is this: He proposes to present bill before this or some other session of congress, advocating that Christmas be shov- ed on into January. 50 that people can take advantage of the January sales when buying Christmas pres ents. Then think of all the money that would be saved by residents of this country. r...
 (The more people laugh at the Idea, the more the Observer feels that there's something phoney about it)
 It strikes us that the method of electing presidents in this country is antiquated and not whit in keep ing with the custom in other anal ogous fields. This idea of having party conventions and then sending two main candidates and four of five representatives of three or four little plit-brained parties against each other is all wrong. The whole performance is over too soon, for one thing. For another. the back CTS of the candidates spend money instead of making it.
 We now propose our remedy. Presidents should be elected in the same manner that boxing champions are found. There should be an elim- ination tournament among all the prominent candidates. and the win ner would meet the incumbent for the presidency. This would spread the fun out over a long period, and the gradually increasing importance of the contests would put some much needed interest into American politics.
 For instance, imagine an opening bout between Alcohol AT, Smith of Albany. champion of New York, meeting Rough and Ready" Reed. middle western title holder, in the first match Then 'Taxicab Charlie" Dawes could be matched against Radio Herbert" Hoover. And Nick Longworth against Willis. It might even be possible to stage an All American election preliminary be- tween Lindbergh and Big Bill Thompson. bringing the airplane into combat with the air. The win- ners of these first-round encounters would then be matched against each other in turn and the eventful win- r1er would be declared the Illogical contender" and fixed in completion with the president for the final bout. In case "Silent Cal" the champion of the maple sugar districts, really did not choose to run again, he could retire gracefully and the win- ner of the elimination would be champion.
 It might even be possible to very the fare with the injection of few foreign champions. It would be quite interesting to see how many votes King George could poll in Chicago. Or the president of Li- beria in Mobile. Or Eeamon de Valera in Minnesota.
 Just leave the arrangements to Tex Rickard. and a great ballyhoo would soon be started which would create unprecedented interest and would have the people clamoring for the right to vote for their favorites. Instead of buying votes as is the custom at present, it would be pos- sible to sell them, with the first million votes corresponding to "ring- side" seats and costing five times as much. There is one fly in the ointment. Electoral commissions comparable to the present boxing commissions would probably be set up in each state by meddlesome busybodies, and then the trouble would start. Certain candidates would be declared ineligible for failure to meet opponents on speci- fled dates or even disqualified for "rabbit-punching" by starting whis- naring campaipns hehind fheir m.