The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-08-13
In OTHER WORDS

of sales and collections and saw that
it was good.
Why specifically, was it SO neces-
sary for Joe to have direct authority
over the writer's projectz to main
tain the project in Butte, under his
dictatorial thumb? to have Mike or
Mikes equivalent, if such thing ex-
lists, in charge of it? The reasons
seem incredibly. pitifully slight, but
they are nevertheless plain and visi-
BILE reasons.
For one thing, Joe fancies that he
is himself a writer. His former dep
uty, c. w. Fowler, felt about Fowler
forsooth, both been in the newspaper
game, said Fowler. Now, God knows,
many admirable people are in the
newspaper game; but also, God knows,
some utter and ineffable clucks are
there with them. Anyone who has
even seen Fowler do his cock-sparrow
strut, slapping his own tight belly in
hearty APPROVAL of his own loose wit,
will know what | mean. Parker and
Fowler, then, proud of their grasp of
the literary mysteries, hankered to
tell the WPA writer's what to write
bearing in mind, of course, that per
sons in political power are often as
sensitive as children and must be
treated tenderly and soothed with sue
culent literary lollipops.
This was-shall we say-the esthet-
ic reason; but there were economic
ones as well. Remember, please, that
wages ON the professional scale were
approximately double the regular
WPA wages. to say nothing of super
visory salaries; and the number Of
employees, though sometimes skinny,
was subject to rapid expansion, God
and the administrator willing With
the removal of the project to Butte,
many employees already working in
Missoula would be compelled to give
up their jobs. The new ones who
took their places would naturally be
grateful to Joe; and if some of them
were wind-broken and found it diff
cult to get up and down Butte's hilly
streets on foot, Joe could do them a
further favor.
Then there was the question OF
Mikes dictatorship. In awarding to
him, Joe said that Mike had unusual
qualifications of education and ex-
perience" and the abilities desired
in a director of the writer's project"
Mike had of course been to college.
That is to say, he was one of the
army of intellectual flyweights who
spend variable periods under total or
partial anethesia in the lecture room
and then emerge wearing an aura of
what passes among female jitterbugs
especially elderly female jitterbugs
for learning and social address. OF
talent as a writer, or of any faintest
understanding of such talent in any
one else, Mike must always remain
as innocent as a poodle. His own SUI
periors on an earlier occasion de-
scribed him as a 'phony"
Was Joe really impressed by Mikes
cultural prowess? Well, he's pretty
dumb, but hardly as dumb as that.
Mikes real qualifications were brief
ly this: He had bought a Studebaker
from Joe. The ability Joe desired
most in him was the ability to meet
his payments. What better way to
insure this than to give him fat
federal salary? From Joe's point Of
any gangster's point of
to take advantage of
such chance would have branded
them both as suckers.
After all, it is not every automobile
sales racketeer who can have his
accounts guaranteed by the
Treasury Of the Unite ltatesl