The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1936-10-09


writer say of this modern ship in
the midst of the sea? The biggest
ship he ever saw could be hung
from the ceiling of the dining salon
on this boat or tucked away in a
corner of the sun deck, disturbing
no one.
A modern ocean liner, Queen
Mary, Normandie, Rex or Europa,
as it crosses the ocean Indifferent
to waves and winds, is small
world in itself, a microcosm, with
this little earth playing the role OF
Cosmos. If this ship should sail
to some new, uninhabited island Of
Utopia, it might supply everything
necessary to start a new civiliZa-
ton better than the one invented
by Sir Thomas More, who has been
made a saint since he wrote
utopia" to amuse himself and had
his head cut off for his Catholic
faith.
On board, with his friend,
George Bacon, is Myron Taylor,
head of the United States Steel COM
pany, biggest industrial unit on
earth. He would supply the ma
terial for skyscrapers, ships, rail-
roads and machinery, plus organ
ization.
Simon Guggenheim would tell
them how to make corporations
profitable, by "holding on"
Various newspaper workers on
the boat would be ready to start
"the New Utopia Gazette; Floyd
Gibbons for war correspondent, plus
members of the Edward H. Butler
family, that own the Buffalo News,
and the able Abraham Cahan,
known to more New Workers than
any editor in America, with one
exception. And, most important to
newspaper prosperity, the ship car
ries Mrs. George D. Widener of
Philadelphia, who has travelled UP
and down in every corner of the
earth and says to your narrator:
"Mr. Brisbane, I have always
your articles every day."
There spoke the nucleus of high
ly intelligent reading public,
Mrs. Vincent Aston, on her way
back from a grouse moor in Scot
land, would resume her real job
of promoting deep music, finding
co-operators in the passenger list
Madame Flagstaff, the admirable
Norwegian singer, deep soprano
able to make Isolde more impress
sive than Wagner ever imagined
her. On board also is Arthur Bo-
danzky, ready to conduct the New
Utopia orchestra" Mayor La
Guardia of New York will tell you
how earnestly Mrs. Aston talks to
him about her plans for a great
musical center. But Mr.. LaGuardia
will never know what shudders
would sweep from Ward Nc
Allister's pineal gland to his
Achilles tendon if he could hear
Mayor LaGuardia say of the young
lady in question, ''That Mrs. Astor
is nice, serious girl, thoroughly in
earnest"
To make this list complete, P.
G. Wodehouse is on boaro, one
who could and should describe this
shipload of important humanity"
going nowhere in particular, for no
reason in particular, some in the
steerage, some tourist" and some,
with cabins on the sundeck, whose
names break up passenger list con-
tinuity to make room for the magic
words maid, valet and chauf-
feur."
The contest between modern ships
for the Atlantic blue ribbon" or
ocean championship, held at this
moment by the British Queen Mary,
supplies most amazing proof of mod
ern engineering efficiency. Consider
that, in race across 5000 miles OF
water, the Queen Mary, after being
beaten several times by the French
liner Normandie, beat the latter
and took the Atlantic blue ribbon
by q margin of less than half a
mile, across 5000 miles of ocean.
The oftener you cross, the more
clearly you realize that the ocean
is a great deal too big for our
small planet. It is all one ocean
Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Antarctic,
all touching-water covering three
quarters of the earth's surface.
Consider the Pacific; take your
world map, Mercator's projection,
fold it over from Asia toward New
York and beyond. 1t will cover
the United States, the Atlantic ocean
and all Europe to the Bosporus.
Q King Features Syndicate. Inc
--tt WNU Service.