Detroit evening times., 1945-11-06
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY WestbrooN
Pegfer

MAYBE better hurry this one
A'l 10 the telegraph wire be-
cause il concerns some bronze
busts of Latin. American presi-
dents executed by Jo Davidson
of New York, who likes to wear
tumble-weed whiskers and make
mud pies of peoples heads. for
which you paid him $4,000, and
the score in the last couple of
weeks is two babies down, eight
to go.
Maybe you didn't know you
were paying Mr.. Davidson $20,-
600 for this but. brother. you
done such out of your taxes.
/ didn't know / had Clipped
in my 2 cents, either, until a
fellow wrote me a note about
the time that Davidson was
getting himself lot of picture
press here last winter, showing
him making a mud head of that
noble old Indian rassler and
boomerang thrower, Henry Wall
lace, and, in another three.
column shot, exhibiting TO the
late President Roosevelt a little
thing called an inauguration
medal which wac. being struck
off by the Philadelphia mint for
sale TO deserving Democrats,
PACs and or Communist friends
at 81 copy.
T THAT time it said In the
"A sheets that Joseph K. Davies
was the head OF a committee in
charge of the medal business
and that the Philadelphia plant
was going 10 knock out 1900
them. ] guess the employees ther0
didn't have much To do.
You remember Davies, per.
haps, as the rather spectral hero
Of that thing that the Warner
Brothers turned out called Mis-
sion to Moscow"
Joe seems TO spend a lot OF
his time touring around other
countries where we already had
ambassadors but, after all, he
and Mrs. d. are terribly dough-
heavy and weren't long married
at the time and may have been
just playing the regular honey
moon circuit.
WELL. anyway, / figured that
w was no way 10 be spending
our dough and felt that If they
just had 10 do il well. art is sup
posed TO have neither race, ma
tionality nor politics and there
must be some fairly good repub-
lie of nonpolitical headstone cut
ters without whiskers who could
have used a drab of the $40, 1000
and might have enjoyed nice
trip TO South America by the
way
For a long time I just sulked
but then / decided 10 write 10
Nelson Rockefeller because he
was the co-ordinator of inter-
American affairs and he wrote
back that, yes, the Axis had
been putting IL out in Latin
America that our beloved land
was a country of big business
men and politicians, with no cul-
ture or creative bility and that
Latin Americans had 10 look TO
Europe for understanding and
friendship.
BY way of counter-action,
Rockefeller therefore commits
stoned Davidson 10 do busts OF
the presidents of all other
American republics and DAVID
son made deep impression
the political and cultural circley
OF the various capitals, says
Rockefeller.
60 THEN l wrote Mr.. David
~ son and he said the informa-
ton was in the catalog of the
buSts issued by the National
Gallery in Washington. But the
catalog doesn't say anything
about price II just says Mr..
Davidson made IAN extended
tour of the ten republics" in
194l and that he had TO make
eleven buSts because he hit
Venezuela about the time they
were changing horses in mid
stream and therefore mugged
both the outgoing preSidente,
General Eleazar Lopez Con-
treras, and the new man, Gen.
eral Isaias Medina.
Then. finally, comes a letter
from Francis A. Jameson, act
ing director of the office of
inter-American affairs, laying
il on the line.
That's right, he says, David
son got $4,000 all told, includ.
ing all services and expenses"
But. easy go and after a nice
show in the National Gallery in
Washington and some more pub
licity for Davidson, they sent the
heads down 10 the Latin Amer
ican capitals where, from the
looks of things, why pretty soon
they may boil down and load
them into cannons and shoot
them at the presidentes thus
honored.
Because first they had fuss
in Caracas and General Isaias
Medina gets pushed and quite a
lot of people are killed in the
change of administration and the
new fellow Romulo Betancourt
probably isn't going to like TO