Of Men and Machines

Man’s dependence on mechanical devices was chaotically demonstrated again the other day in a huge market in San Fernando Valley.

A motorist rammed into a power pole outside the store, disrupting the electricity inside. Suddenly the customers were groping around in semidarkness, grabbing cabbages when they wanted lettuces.

Amid frantic phoning to get the power restored, a few crank handles were found to operate the registers manually. The rest of the cashiers had to get back to basic pencil-and-paper arithmetic.

All in all, it was a harrowing reminder that life without juice is not sweet.

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‘Lady’ and the Mails

As you may have read, “Lady Chatterly’s Lover,” the controversial novel by David Herbert Lawrence (1885-1930), is okay again. At least for the moment.

Postmaster General Arthur F. Summerfield banned it from the mails several months ago as “obscene and filthy.” Critics and writers protested. (Read Alfred Kazin’s blistering comments in the July Atlantic.) The book’s publishers invited the Post Office “into the 20th century.”

Last week Federal Judge Frederick Bryan of New York overruled Summerfield’s
order. He stated, “The postmaster general has no special competence which qualifies him to render an informal judgment” and held that Summerfield’s ban order violated the guarantee of speech and press in the First Amendment.

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Free Enterprise

The 30-cent bite for a pack of cigarettes in vending machines is still outraging the addicts and, free enterprise being what it is, two regulars in a downtown saloon have set up an unusual business operation.

They take turns watching for customers heading for the cigarette machine. This is not always easy to do, if you know this saloon.

When one appears he is intercepted and given a fast hustle. As long as he is about to invest 30 cents in cigarettes, how about skipping the machine and letting a pal buy them for him around the corner? Continue reading →