Evening star., 1938-07-02
Protests the Closing of
Greatest Show on Earth"
To the Editor Of The Star:

OFcdCcSI SnOW On k2fth.
To the Editor Of The Star:
THE announcement of the closing OF
the Greatest Show on Earth has
brought forth Nationwide expressions
of regret. The American people love
tradition, and the circus has carried
on a traditional form of amusement
Born with the Republic. loved by George
Washington, it has come down to us
in the course of $50 years. unchanged
in manner OF presentation.
We have lost much in these United
States in the past generation; the Cha
tauqua has disappeared, the old-time
opera house which gave us the best in
drama has gone, the minstrel show of
the Civil War era is no more, and all
that was left to US was the circus.
1t lived in a world of its own. sur
rounded by tradition and ritual. It was
fundamental that 'the show must go
on" Loyalty to the show brought forth
the old saying. Are you with it?" which
was the dividing line between the real
trouper and the temporary employe
who was known as first of May"
Now it has gone, not by fault of the
circus people themselves, but destroyed
by new force that was difficult for
them to understand. A movement ini-
tiated by outsiders working through
labor groups whose circus affiliation is
not often of even a seasons duration
took away their livelihood in what,
as termed by the New York Herald
Tribune, was "one Of the most stupid
and unpopular blurders ever committed
in the name Of organized labor"
Their pitiful petitions taken from
them, denied the right. to vote by ballot
forced out of their livelihood at the
commencement of season-no wonder
at Potomac Yards they gazed about in
bewilderment and with lack Of UNDER
standing. Men and women who knew
no other life, some Of them connected
with the show for more than half a
century, doubted that it could be- They
looked up in wonderment at the i'm
pressive names on the top of the
cars-"Ringing Bros and Barnum l.
Bailey"-names that had represented to
them security, force and eternal and
efficient organization. They wondered
how group of roustabouts could take
away eaAAS SSAy plCClVuS WUIW WHICH UC-
longed essentially to them.
The name "Barnum" goes back to
an era before the Civil War; then came
the combination with James A. Bailey,
resulting in the "Barnum & Bailey
Greatest Snow on Earth" which in the
early SOS went forth to Europe and revo-
lutionized military training in those
war-taught countries. In 1884, a group
of seven talented brothers started from
Baraboo. Wis, to show under a tent
which they had made themselves, on
wagons pulled by borrowed horses, to
plough through >the mud-rutted roads
of those mid-Northern States. For four
years they pushed on, until in 1890 they
were able to place their show upon the
railroad. Then it went forward, bigger
and bigger, until in 1919 there came
the combination Of Ringing Bros Bar
mum Bailey, literally the worlds great
est show.
The loss is not only to the performers.
The National and State Governments
lose a stable sum in tax revenue; the
railroad and concerns which furnish
supplies to the circus lose enormously,
and old-estabhshed unions such as the
Musicians Onion and the Bill Posters