The Ely miner., 1937-04-22

Communism's Gallant Foe.
IT ARDLY a day passes but we
IL read in the paper of an &C
count of individual heroism, of sac
rifice, of devotion to duty-some-
thing which renews our faith in hui
man beings and makes us realize
that scattered through the world are
splendid souls of whom we never
heard before and probably shall
never hear again. When the emer-
gency came he rose to it-and that's
enough.
But because, in the last few
months, we've learned to expect it
of him, I'm thinking many of us
fail to appreciate a recurrent act of
gallant service by one venerable,
enfeebled man whose name is IA
miliar to all Christendom., From
time to time, triumphing by sheer
will power, by sheer singleness of
purpose above his own suffering,
Pope Plus XI, speaking from what
soon must be his deathbed, sends
forth a clarion call for a united
front against the growing menace
of communism.
Waning Merchant Marines.
a FTER we've spent billions in
\ government subsidies trying to
build up a proper merchant fleet
of our own, it's just trifle discon-
certing to read that, among the six
nations leading in maritime ship
ping, the United States still ranks
third in gross tonnage, fifth in ships
having a speed of twelve knots or
better, and last in ships built within
the last ten years.
But, although Los Angeles is a
great port, we have no time right
now to poster about a comparatively
trivial thing such as the threatened
vanishment of the American flag
from the seven seas-not while
we're still so uncertain about who
will have the leading parts in "Gone
With the Wind" To date, nearly
every lady in the movie colony has
been suggested for Scarlet O'Hara
except Mae West and Jane Withers,
and as for Rhett Butler-well, it
may yet be necessary to cast that
role as whole minstrel first part,
with an interlocutor and six end
men.
Italians in Spain.
1T MUST be slightly annoying to
those Italian soldiers who were
flung headlong upon Spain to fight
in war in which they had no per-
sonal interest, when, through mis-
take, they are mown down in hun
dreds by their own troops, and then
the bewildered remnants find them
selves in the hands of the oppos-
ing government forces, who have a
reputation for sometimes being a
Itrifie rough with prisoners whom
they capture.
Still, it must be a great COM
fort to the confused captives-and
to the relatives of the fallen back
home as well-to have assurance
from Mussolini that they are win
ming the way for fascist doctrines.
Until they heard that cheering mes
sage, those battered survivors prob
ably thought that they had been
licked.
The Height of Gall.
A S J. CAESAR remarked at the
n time, all Gaul was once divid-
ed in three parts, but it is obvious
that subsequently there was COM
plete re-consolidation.
When France, already in default
to us on one little four-billion debt,
starts scheming to peddle her new
est issue of government securities
over here, that must indeed be re-
garded as the height of gallishness
or Gaulishness-spell it either way,
reader, it'll come out the same.
Moreover, to evade the Johnson act,
she would have American investors
send the money to Paris and buy
these French bonds there. This sort
Il ~ L - 4