The Southern Jewish weekly. [volume] (Jacksonville, Fla.) 1939-1992, 1942-03-06
Heard In The
LObbieS
THUNDER IN WASHINGTON
BY DAVID DEUTSCH

the United States eat his break
fast peacefully the morning he got
the news about the Struma disas-
ter at Istanbul, especially when he
remembered that he had Just
turned down an American-Jewish
request that he intervene to urge
MS government to permit the
landing of the $50 Jewish refu-
gees? The Zionist technique
OF using the Congressional Record
to insert speeches favoring PaIes-
tine has at last been taken up by
the anti-ZiOnistS. Wonder if Rab-
bi Morris LaZarOn of Baltimore
had anything to do with the in
sertion by Senator George L. Rad
cliffe of Maryland of the New
York Times editorial on "a Zion
list Army" which set world Zion
lists blazing mad +. After years
away from the Jewish field, hand
some Jim Wise has been persuad-
ed to serve as the Washington
representative of the World Jew
ish Congress and the Inter-Amer-
lean Jewish Council. Best bet the
organizations could have made
The reason that University of
Pennsylvania graduate Robert r..
Nathan heads Donald Nelson's
thinking committee" of three is
largely due to his prediction in
the summer of 1910 of shortages
in basic war materials like steel
and aluminium. Insiders say. it
was the thirty-three-year-Old six
fOOter who got the Presidents ear
on the "VictOry Program"
Judge Samuel ROSenman has been
so busy lately with national af-
fairs that friends say he some
times feels like retiring to the
simple life led by his brothers
Max and Mayer, who own a string
of. loan shops in San Antonio.
BANANAS AND ZEMURRAY
The old-time national favorite,
Eyes, We Have No Bananas"
threatens to become a grocer's an
them because of the submarine
menace in the Caribbean. And
that is a headache to Samuel Ze-
murray, mysterious head of Unit
ed Fruit Co., who shuttles beween
homes in Boston and New Orleans
keeping track of one of the great
est enterprises in the world.
AS the price of bananas goes up,
because bottoms are not as plenti-
full to ship the yellow fruit, Ze-
murray must remember far worse
days. in. his career, especially in
the early period when he had just
come to the United States from
Rumania. Zemurray started life
again as a StevedOre. He kept his
eyes peeled and his brain clear.
He noticed that great bOatlOads
of bananas used to arrive from
Latin America and that they had
to be dumped. So he went to the
ship owners and offered to buy all
the bananas that arrived at Gulf
ports. The price was low. AS
far as the shippers were concern
ed, anything was better than
nothing. But then Zemurray Or
ganized a system of distribution
that rushed the bananas to gro
Gerry stores inland so fast that
they became great table delicacies
for immediate consumption. His
fortune was started. His Compel
itors saw the light and tried to
drive him out. That was the Unit
ed Fruit Co. 1t wasn't long be-
fore HE was the United Fruit Co.
Then came his ideas of refrigera-
tiOn-and still faster methods OF
distribution. United Fruit Co. is
today an empire.
zemurray is probably the least
known and most modest Jew in
the land. Many enterprises have
his secret generosity. They say
he reads voraciously, hates the in
antics of public Jewish life and
is particularly immune to flattery.
Strike him right and the cause
GETS thousands. Strike him wrong
and there is only silence. A case