The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-05-29

must keep him guessing TO avoid
falling over himself as he jumps
from stunt to stunt in any number
Of different directions.
Due to their record in the last
/ World war and to their recent
wishy.washy showing in Africa,
against Greece and at sea, the Ital-
fans have established present rep
utation as a pretty fumbling, in
competent bunch. Those who hold
such an opinion can't substantiate
their thesis, however, by citing
Fiorello's case. If he doesn't de-
liver the goods, nobody ever did.
He was born in Manhattan, to
be sure, but his parents were from
Italy, and I'm told he reproduces
'em faithfully, though I never met
either one. Fiorello himself I was
we'll acquainted with when he was
in congress. And how his pa and
ma happened to name him Fiorello
is too deep for me. In Italian il
means Little Flower. Little Flower
suggests something frail and gen.
tie. Fiorello personally is as hard
an egg as ever was boiled.
His New York mayo-alty duties,
which he still attends to and to
which he's likely to be reelected,
are enough to keep the average in
dividual fully occupied.
Fiorello, though, was conscripted
to take charge, on the side, of the
coordination Of Uncle Sans de-
tense preparations and Canada's.
Well, he has looked after that as
signment capably.
Air Raid Shelters
Then he was grabbed to direct
the planting Of air raid shelters in
our various big cities, to form vol
unteer corps Of air raid wardens
and to put ladies sewing circles to
work at defensive seamstressing.
AS a practical, fighting Ameri-
can aviator on the Italian northern
front during the last war, he proved
to be so valuable with his air de-
tense preparations that it quickly
wa proposed to make him lead Of
our plane-building program. He
hasn't been drafted for that yet,
but It's urged that he should be.
You know" he once told me,
during his days in congress, II
never went up in a plane that I
wasn't scared nearly to death.
don't believe I'm much Of hero"
All the same, he regularly went up,
scattered bombs, shot down Ger
mans and raised miscellaneous
hades.
While actual plane-building re-
sponsibilities haven't been dumped
onto him as yet, an Once Of Civil
ian Defense has been created and
Forello has been appointed to its
dictatorship. He's to superintend
an Indignation Of federal, state and
local activities, to set home guard
units a-going, TO teach 'em how to
utilize bomb shelters, how to ex-
tinguish fires. how to administer
first aid, how to protect bridges,
culverts and power stations, how to
quell hysteria. And ordinary citi-
zens will have to be convinced that
all these precautions, which prob
ably will be a nuisance to 'em, are
vitality necessary. Thereu be re-
gional centers, corresponding to
the nine Army Corps Areas, from
which instructions will be radiated.
Fiorello will boss the entire outfit,
among the other things that he
looks after.
Now it's being argued that, ad-
ditionally. he ought to undertake
an overhauling Of Director William
s. Knudsen's Once of Production
Management. I've heard the state
ment on Capitol Hill that the OPMs
rambling multiplicity Of defense
agencies needs pulling down into a
simpler pattern"-that President
Roosevelt urgently requires "a
strong right arm" to manage the
task for him.
Fiorellos the bird whom every
body mentions as a super-suitabil-