The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1947-11-18

arc light. II spreads out ovel
the city as far as the eye car
see. losing itself finally in the
durkening horizon.
Down the city, along the
Champs Elysees, the Place de |;
Concorde, the Boulevard de.
Capuchines. everybody walks
The sidewalk cafes reaching ou
with small chairs and tables onto
the walks beside the street are
thronged with people, and the
sidewalks are full. 1t is a wei
dressed crowd, a slow moving
crowd which, caught in the spell
of the sevening, will stroll unit
midnight and after. A lean, dark
Moroccan, with a beret and close.
lysclipped moustache, lopes along
with half a dozen rugs over his
shoulder, leather pocketbOoks ano
silver bracelets in his hands
haunting the front tables of the
sidewalk cafes to sell his wares
The newsgirl, gaunt. haggard and
q, bit shabby. wearing the newt
able black beret, a close fitting
black jacket and skirt, her feet
bare in Roman sandals, slips
among the tables crying France
Eoir" in an effort to sell her last
remaining copies. She is Bit
bitter that she still has a dozen
more to 60. France Soir", this
time almost in anguish.
~.
The. broad expanse of the
Champs -Elysces is brilliant in
the afternoon-the Arc de Tri-
omphe at one end and Cleo
patra's Needle at the other-a
boulevard so wide that the side
walks themselves are as broad
as an average American street,
the curb lined with treeS-so that
as you look up and down the
boulevard it seems like a formal
garden. The shops are smart
reminiscent of Fifth Avenue
interseprsed with swank restau-
rants with brilliant awnings in
royal colors, red and gold, blue
and gold, cream and red spread
out over the sidewalk cafes. 1t
is "a sparkling street and spark
ling .crowd-but it moves quick
ly, amid the sharp toots of the
taxis, the whistle blasts of the
smartIy uniformed gendarmes
with their white night sticks at
the traffic points. Although tires
aid new cars are scarce, brakes
and rubber shrek on the pave
mentor a New York cab driv-
er is a clam and inhibited soul
i'm comparison to the Paris taxi
nan--whose vocabulary of pro-
family is, by the way, probably
the worlds most extensive.
~ hope" he was saying, that
you do not find us too depressed.
This isn't the Paris of 1887, of
the pre-war days. This isn't the
Paris 'toujours gai', for life is
hard-and eXpensive-and we
are al little, how do you say it,
down in the mouth"
We were talking in the office
of large printing machinery
firm-the general manager and
most of the staff of office person
mel and service Workmen away
on vacation, for French law pre-
scribes that every firm must
provide two weeks vacation with
pay every year to all its en-
ployes.
That's another reason" he
was saying, "why the Communist:
are so strong. The other partie.
weren't awake. The Commun
lists demanded legislation for va
cations-and got it. The Com
munists demanded higher wage!
for the workerS-and got them
They can point to these and 9th
er things their influence ha'
brought to the Workingman-
things everybody knew he need
ed, wanted and deserved. The
others had no comparable policy
The influence of Communism
Well. obviously it is most effec
tive among the lowest paid work
ers, and we cannot deny that i
is strong. Probably about 30H O.
the available vote. But it's hare
to compute. The Communist
took 5lR of the vote, in the las
e4ection-but 20H of the people
eligible to vote stayed away
from the polls. These obviously
were not Communists or they
would have voted-for the Com
munists as a party are we'll dis
ciplined-they get out and vote
and vote as they are told. The
other parties are diSorganizec
and confused in their own ranks
THE facts are that in thai
election many people of other
parties voted with the Commu-
nists because they wanted
change-but not because they
wanted Communism. The people
who abstained stayed away
from the polls because they are
fed UP with elections which to-