Verhovayak Lapja, 1937. július-december (20. évfolyam, 27-53. szám)

1937-07-29 / 31. szám

PAGE 8

July 29, 1937,

Journal of the Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Ass’n. Printed by STATE PRESS, 7 E. Buchtel Ave., Akron, Ohio

PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE Verhovay Fraternal Insurance Association

Editors: BENCZE JÁNOS és RÉVÉSZ KÁLMÁN, Szerkesztők

EDITOR’S OFFICE — SZERKESZTŐSÉG:

345 FOURTH AVENUE, ROOM 805, PITTSBURGH, PA.

All articles and changes of address should be sent to the VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, 345 FOURTH AVE. PITTSBURGH, PA.

MINDEN, A LAPOT ÉRDEKLŐ”KÖZLEMÉNY ÉS CIMVÁLTOZÁS A VERHOVAY FRATERNAL INSURANCE ASSOCIATION, 345 FOURTH AVE. PITTSBURGH PA. küldendő

SUBSCRIPTION RATES:

United States and Canada $1.00 a year

Foreign Countries $1.50 a year

Advertising Department (Hirdetési iroda): P. O. Box 7. — Woolsey Station — Long Island City, N. Y.

Entered as second class matter January 2, 1937 at the Post Office at Akron, Ohio, under the act of March 3, 1879.

EDITOR’S FORUM

The heat is as hot as it used to be and there’s probably as much complaining about it as there used to lie, too. But there is an important difference.

When a heat wave strikes the United States now, the United States strikes back. Starting with the Children, who have a minimum of modesty to affront, it begins to peel off clothing.

Not everybody can wear a sun suit, unfortunately, but for the grown-ups there are subterfuges which grandfather and grandmother never heard of — loosely woven fabrics, ventilated shoes, air conditioning, electric fans, swimming pools and styles of dress appropriate to all these modern improvements.

Mental temperatures should drop at least 10 degrees when grandpa in his heavy suits, high shoes and starched shirts and grandma in her buttoned shoes and multitudinous petticoats are remembered.

SPAIN entered its second year of civil war. Upwards of 300,000 people have been killed, many more wounded. Ancient and cultured cities hve been ruined. Hates that generations cannot wipe out have been loosed. From a fratricidal struggle within Spain itself, the war has degenerated into a class war, on a world scale, with fascism and socialism trying to crush each other and making an early end of the carnage wellnigh impossible.

The only hope today for the world powers is that some such formula as Anthony Eden’s “last chance” neutrality plan still may isolate the struggle and keep it from spreading into a great world conflagration.

Who besides the vultures have benefited? No one, and no matter which side eventually "wins,” SPAIN WILL LOSE AND SO WILL CIVILIZATION.

One thing this war has done. It has given civilization a preview of the “next world war.” All the rules of “humane” warfare have been scrapped. Prisoners have been killed. Undefended cities have been bombed from ship and air, women and children slaughtered wholesale by the belligerents.

If this curtain-raiser on modern warfare does not frighten the world and its rulers into peace, nothing wlil.

Japan in its whole empire has less than 100,000,000 souls. China as nearly as can be estimated, contains something more than 400,- 000,000. —

Yet, it was not considered foolish when Japan undertook to seize Chinese territory, because China is poorly organized. Millions of its inhabitant have no contact with anything in the world but the land, their families and their neighbors. They are useless as patriots.

Men have dreamed of the potential power of an awakened, organized China, but their dreams vanished in the heat of reality. Plainly, there was nothing to prevent Japan’s mighty little men from doing as they pleased with the sleeping giant — unless he awakened.

These things are recalled by dispatches relating the gravity with which Japan is dealing with the Peiping crisis. Three million army reservists have been ordered to stand ready. Japanese militarists admit they are dealing with a kind of Chinese resistance they never encountered before. The giant is stirring. The good little men who fight for the Emperor of the Sun are meeting, at last, some good big men fighting for the land of their ancestors.

TRAFFIC DEATHS were 14,- 270 in the United States in the first five months of 1937, and the

National Safety Council reports. This an increase of 17% over the same moföths of last year.

There were more autos this year than last, and they were driven more miles. But the increase in auto mileage was less than the increase in traffic deaths. Evidently, then, these figures lend no support to the hope that the streets and highways would be made relatively safer in spite of increased use of autos. They do, however, suggest some questions that may be significant.

Why were there more traffic deaths in Chicago than in the larger city of New York? Why did Rochester, N. Y., have a traffic death-rate of only 9.4 per 100,000 residents while other cities no larger and some even smaller had rates two and three times as high? Why were there only three traffic deaths in five months among the 120,000 people of Wichita, Kansas? Why were there none at all in Quincy, Mass, (population 80,000), and in Hoboken, N. J. (population 60,000) ?

How was Pittsburgh, to get closer home, able to reduce its death toll for the first six months of 1937 from 60 to 48, the latter the lowest figure in 15 years?

Some cities were much safer than ohters, and the degree of safety seems not to be determined entirely by their size That some lives must be sacrificed to the auto probably is inevitable. But if the toll can be kept low in Pittsburgh and certain other cities — and the figures prove that it can — it is reasonable to believe that it can be kept low in all cities.

In Pittsurgh the Board of Education is to be commended for introducing a course in auto driving in the public schools.

There has been a definite need for such a course in the public schools and so far as we know, the Pittsburgh Board of Education is one of the first to recognize it. Certainly, no course could be more practical, for almost every boy and girl in high school age becomes a driver as soon as he or she reaches the qualified age.

Students in the auto driving course not only are taught how to handle a motor vehicle, but are instructed in its mechanics. Thus, they emerge from the course much better qualified drivers than the average motorist, to whom the inside of an auto is usually a deep mystery.

Six students have completed the course and have passed their driving examination with flying colors.' Classes now are held in four city high schools and next fall will be extended to others.

We congratulate the Board of Education upon its foresight in offering such a course to Pittsburgh students. It has been needed for years.

A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO the University of Goettingen (in Germany) began the celebration

Verhovay Journal—

of its 200th anniversary. The occasion left something to be desired. There was an atmosphere of discouragement.

Many universities were represented. Externally, there will be nothing wroong with the ceremonies. Stirring tributes wiFl be paid to one of Germany’s great institutions of learning.

Still, Goettingen knows something is wrong. It had been selected by the lords and masters of the third reich to make a special appeal to the English and American universities for recognition of the Nazi concept of science — that anything which a Nazi decides is right because he says it is.

Most English and American universities whose endorsement the Nazis wanted turned down invitations to participate in the ceremonies at Goettingen. They were too proud to pay any more : than perfunctory respect to men who have issued this edict: “We do not know of or recognize truth for truth’s sake or sciences for

science’s sake!” ---- Nazi minister

of education, Dr. Rust, in an address to scholars assembled last year to honor University of Heidelberg on its 550th anniversary.

WE LOVE LIFE! ... If one normal health there is a zest for life, a new ambition to live to the fullest each day. Occasionally when we are physically sub-normal we may wish it might end and end quickly. But such feelings soon pass when health returns.

Henry Van Dykes has said so well in these lines what we all feel but cannot express so beautifully:

“Let me but live from year to

years,

With forward face and unreluc* tant soul.

Not hastening to nor turning from the goal;

N t mourning for the things that disappear

In the dim past, nor holding back in fear

From what the future veils; but with a whole

And happy heart, that pays its toll

To youth and age, and travels on with cheer.

— So let the way wind up the hill or down,

Thru rough or smooth, the journey will be joy;

Still seeking what I thought when but a boy,

New friendship, high adventure, and a crown,

—• I shall grow old, but never iose life’s zest,

Because the road’s last turn will be the best!”

AVERAGE SPAN OF LIFE

The average span of human life is always a subject of interest, because most people love to juggle with riddles. Take 100,000 young men, age 15, and this is the way actuaries have figured their chances for life: 59,172 live to the age of 65; 31,650 live to the age of 75; 7,550 will reach 85; 294 will see 95; 16 will be alive at 100, but at the age of 105 all those “young lads” will have vanished from the scene.

BROWN-FORMAN DISTILLERY COMPANY

LOUISVILLE, KY., July 14 — The annual financial statement of the Brown-Forman Distillery Company was released today by Owsley Brown, president. When interviewed by a reporter Mr. Brown said he was looking forward to a strong fail business in Which the aggressive sales policy of the company would again be supported by a consistent newspaper campaign in all important markets.

In commenting upon the annual statement Mr. Brown said that the progress of the company had been uninterrupted except for the flood period. In the eight months prior to the flood the sales showed an increase of 46 percent over the corresponding period of the previous year.

The annual report shows net income for the year ended April 30, 1937, after Federal and State income taxes, but before provision for Federal undistributed profits tax, was $288,693.90, notwithstanding losses due to the flood estimated at $217,052.80. Operating profit, before losses and charges attributable to the flood, was $694,125.16.

The net of $288,693.90 for the fiscal year ended April 30 compares with the net of $475,062.27 for the preceding fiscal year but a true picture cf the remarkable progress the company was making until the unprecedented flood disaster is presented by the following comparison of the sales and profits for the eight months periods ending December 31, 1936 and December 31, 1935.

The net sales for the last eight months of 1936 amounting to $6,236,676.63 compare with the net of $4,275,608.46 for 1935, an increase of 46 per cent. The gross profit in the 1936 period of eight months was 45 per cent greater than the corresponding period of 1935. The net profit for the eight months’ period of 1936 was 40 per cent greater than the net for the same 1935 period.

“It is gratifying to note,” said Mr. Brown, “that despite the unusually heavy drain upon cash resources of the company brought about by the flood and. expenditures for capital improvements, the company’s working capital continues to be satisfactory. Current assets as of April 30, 1937, stood at $4,772,179.35, against total current liabilities (exclusive of renewable notes) of $890,867.66 — a ratio of over five to one.

“Newspaper advertising will appear in all important centers and we naturally expect the same satisfactory response in increased sales which we have enjoy id in the past from our exclusively newspaper campaigns. ‘Old Forester,’ our bonded brand, will be featured as will the quality of our sales leader, ‘Bottoms Up,’ and“ of our other brands, ‘Early Times,’ ‘Old Tucker,’ ‘King of Kentucky,’ ‘Old Polk,’ and ‘Old Forman.’ We look upon our newspaper advertising as the foundation of our selling effort and with a campaign soon to go into effect that covers completely all markets of consequence we have every reason to expect a continuation of sales progress.”

Always Hopeful Diner: — I see that tips are forbidden here.

Waitress: — Bless your heart, sir, that’s correct. —But so were apples in the the Garden of Eden!