Voice of action. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1933-1936, 1935-01-04
Reprinted from "The Miner"
Juneau, Alaska
CURTAIN

W hIAIN
CAS- the curtain rises there Is
shown the broad marble steps Of
the Department OF Commerce
Building in Washington, ID. G. In
the background loom several
bleak barrack-like buildings in
which are filed away all the pa
pers and documents collected by
the AAA, NRA, FERA, FCT and
so on and so on ad nauseam. On
the steps are several men OF grave
mien. They would ordinarily be
hard to distinguish, but this is
1886, so on first glance anyone
can tell they are brain Trusters. !"
Each man has a set of children's
alphabet building blocks that
carry different letters of the al
phabet on each surface. Studi-
ously they are laying these
blocks into different and various
patterns.)
First Brain Truster: Nope,
it's no go, boys The looks down
ruefully at his set of alphabet
blocks that makes a meaningless
pattern OF letters) I'm afraid we
will have to quit this economic
planning and go back to teaching
Greek mythology again"
(His companions blanch and
look at him startled.)
Second Brain Truster: What do
you mean? You mean we'll have
to get off the government pay
roll? Oh, not that! Wen have to
do something"
First Brain Truster: What can
we do? Here we've found it i'm
possible to make any more COM
binations of letters that haven't
been used before. How do you
propose to spend more money!"
Third Brain Truster: "Yes, you
are quite right, professor. Here
three weeks have gone by with
cut a 5fnsiO now asOuUy VT tire
government being started. AAA,
FERA, FCA-anything that turns
up has been used before. And
you remember what we were told
when we started on this job four
years ago. We were told, Boys,
the national deficit must get big
ger and better"
Fourth Brain Truster: 1--WE
haven't done bad at that. In
four years we've run the deficit
up to point where the govern
ment has been forced to hire I'M
employed astronomers to calcu-
late it."
First Brain Truster: 81 can only
think of one letter combination
that hasn't been used yet"
Chorus OF Brain Trusters hope
fully: And what's that?"
First Brain Truster: "BVD."
THE other BITS make wry
faces
Second Brain Truster: That's
not original, so that's out of the
question. That's an underwear. 7"
First Brain Truster (philOsoph-
icallyl: We'll, most of the peo-
pie have been unable to buy
underwear for so long that they
have probably forgotten what
BVD stands for"
They are interrupted by the
tramp of marching feet. A squad
of soldiers marches into sight
with a miserable looking indi-
vidual in their midst. They march
up to a nearby wall and leave
the miserable looking individ-
ual standing against it. Swiftly,
efficiently, the squad steps back
a few PAGES, level rifles, there is
a sharp crack, and the man
against the wall drops. Quickly
the squad falls in again and be-
gins to march past the Brain
Trusters.)
Fourth Brain Truster calling
out to officer in commando: Il
say, who did you liquidate just
them"
Commanding Officer: That was
an Iowa farmer"
Third Brain Truster: what
was the offense?"
Officer: High treason and an
attempt to defeat the purpose of
national recovery.
Second Brain Truster: What
was the specific act?"
Officer: He was only sup
posed to raise twelve hogs this
year. That was his quota set by
the AAA, and his SOW gave birth
to a litter of thirteen"
Fourth Brain Truster: That
was hardly his fault, was it?"
Officer: We'll, it was his SOW,
wasn't it?"
Fourth Brain Truster Judi
ciously): We'll, / suppose that
is one viewpoint of the matter"
"a steady rumbling that has
been sounding from off stage all
the while becomes louder and
mora orninon,s rising ranidIv m