Ivory Peacocks The Newest Contributions of American Genius to the Art of Living N talking last I THE genius of America expresses itself in many ways, but in none more effectively than in raising the general standard of living. The best scientific, inventive, and artistic brains in America are being applied diving suit who can be raised and lowered in the water by pumping air into him through a rubber tube. to the production of things that To minister to our comfort, our amuse- The editors believe that no view week about the various Christmas gifts and toys for children, we left out the water toys -boats, and so on. The most elaborate of these is the fortyinch electric cruiser, which is beautifully built, has electric lights, and is driven by batteries. There are several smaller electric speed and motor boats, and there is a clockwork submarine, in several sizes, which travels at a good rate of speed and submerges and rises to the surface in a most realistic manner. There is also a clockwork fire-boat, which will not only go to the fire under its own power, but will put it out with a stream of water thrown from a nozzle on top of the deck-house. The boats without engines include ocean liners, ferry-boats, war-ships, and destroyers, as well as sailboats in several sizes. These are all made to scale, and are correct and complete in detail. For the boy who wants to build his own boat there are construction sets for building both sail and motor boats. Motors and all sorts of boat parts can also be had separately. A fine bathtub toy is the set containing a rowboat and a whale and a swan and a frog and several other aquatic creatures made of celluloid, with a clockwork which can be fastened to them and will make them swim. We believed that we had outgrown bathtub toys, but we wouldn't mind experimenting with a set of these. Or with the little man in the Hungary. Hungarian head scarves of printed cashmere in many different designs and color combinations, which are good gifts for either men or women. Printed cashmere shawls with flower designs in brilliant peasant colors. Some new semicircular black silk shawls with heavy fringe and a delicate design in silver. Hungarian gold lace doilies, and some very good looking Hungarian pottery-ash-trays and small dishes, and mules embroidered in brilliant colors. And some very amusing dolls in Hungarian peasant costume. We covered also one of the round, very shallow, 18-inch, rather dull lacquer trays, in either yellow or pink or black, return to grown-ups. The quest for gifts that are "unusual" and "different" frequently leads one into strange strange and horrible morasses of N bad taste. Impossi ble to compute how many thousands of tons of "different" gifts are carted off by ash-men on December 26. And how frightful to us now are the "different" gifts of a generation ago! We happened on some in a relative's attic not so long ago-crocheted candlesticks and evil-looking penwipers and embroidered leather contraptions to hang on a wall and put a whisk broom in, and those atrocious jars to whose surface hairpins and thimbles and spools and nails and broken crockery had been attached, and the whole gilded. We don't mean that an unusual thing is necessarily bad. We mean simply that it isn't necessarily good. And the more unusual it is, the more likely it is to be either very bad or very good. Unless you possess impeccable taste, don't go in for the extremely unusual, because for every very good thing there are a million very bad ones, and the law of averages is against you. Some excellent gifts which aren't too unusual we saw in a shop' which imports a good many small things from 1 Lillian Miracle. ow that we can't use the kitchen range any more to pop corn on, poppers are being made for gas ranges. These have a perforated cover and a handle which, being turned, keeps the corn in motion so it won't burn. There is also an electric popper which works in the same way. Another new electrical device is a small heating unit which screws into the neck of a regular hot-water bottle and maintains the water at a uniform temperature. It comes with plenty of cord, so that there's no danger of giving the bottle a tug and pulling the unit out by the roots and getting a surprise bath at 3 A.M. A LOT more of our pet animosities are coming on the market-the things that look like what they aren't. There is a loudspeaker that looks like a lamp, and actually has a lamp in it. There is a fire-screen which turns out to be a folding bridge-table, which might, after all, have its uses in a small apartment. And there are book-ends that are also pipe racks. We don't approve of these things that lead a double life, generally speaking, although there is sometimes a use for them. W. R. B. THE FLATTERING PRESENT To give a friend HARPERS MAGAZINE for Christmas implies that he or shepossesses a vigorous inquiring mind, daring imagination, and impeccable taste. For, after all, that is the sort of person for whom the new HARPERS MAGAZINE is published, and who, in turn, finds it sympathetic. Among the people you care for there must be a number who would respond to the power and brilliance of Wilbur Daniel Steele's new novel," Meat;" who would appreciate the fearless informative articles on politics, world events, education, manners, science that have made the new HARPERS the indispensable magazine among educated people. Think how they would enjoy such articles as Elmer Davis's "Decadent Boston," Samuel Hopkins Adams's "A Sabbatical Year for Marriage," "Christ on the Campus," by Joseph Fort Newton, and "Are Women A Success in Business?" by Dorothy H. Bromley. Not only is HARPERS MAGAZINE the happiest choice, it is so easy to give. Fill out the coupon below and the names will be entered at once. A graceful card will announce your gift at Christmas time. And you save a dollar on every gift subscription, a considerable item at this time of year. For you may have two or more gift subscriptions at three dollars each instead of the regular price of $4.00. How Would You Invest a Million Dollars? If you wished to travel and leave business behind You would logically buy high-grade bonds. You would diversify as an added measure of safety. You would deal with a house that could not only help you make the right selections, but also afford you relief from detail in caring for the securities during your absence. Here is a concrete instance of just how we recently served one investor confronted with this problem. A CUSTOMER of ours sold out his business for $1,000,000. He desired to travel, unhampered by financial cares. He asked us to assist him invest the money at as high a net return as safety would permit— income tax being a consideration. We made up a list of first-grade bonds, diversified not only as to individual issues, but in a larger way, to build a well balanced investment structure. This included the required amount of tax-free issues. After taxes, the net return exceeded 5%. The bonds were all selected for quality-and, on the whole, were much more marketable than the situation made necessary. Over 90% of all the issues included were immediately supplied from our own stock of bonds on hand. This is not an unusual instance. Halsey, Stuart & Co. is always well prepared to supply, from its own holdings, "Bonds to Fit the Investor"-whatever the amount or purposes of the investment may be. Such resources are of benefit to every one who invests through this house. How the Fund Was Invested $300,000 or 28.7% in Public Utility Bonds $250,000 or 23.9 % in Industrial Bonds $295,000 or 28.2% in Municipal Bonds $75,000 or 7.2 % in Real Estate Bonds $125,000 or 12% in Short Term Issues of various types including Railroad and Foreign Bonds Averaging in yield 4.90% If you are concerned about the structure of your own investment fund, if you are contemplating the conversion of other CHICAGO 201 South La Salle Street NEW YORK 14 Wall Street PHILADELPHIA 111 S. Fifteenth Street DETROIT 601 Griswold Street CLEVELAND 925 Euclid Avenue of money in new apparatus, largely to take the place of obsolescing engines and trucks. A member of the town government, learning that the purchase could be postponed for two or three years, proposed that the town immediately set up a depreciation account for the old apparatus and also begin to lay aside money out of the tax levy so that when the equipment must be bought it would not deal the town's pocketbook a staggering blow. It was conceded that this was just ordinary, wise business policy. But it could not be done. The thing was illegal. Very Apparently what we need, at least in the older parts of the country, is a simplification of our laws, so that municipalities can conduct themselves like business beings, not like ancient, if honorable, guilds and corporations. - pertinent to this subject are some re: marks on the spending of the taxpayer's dollar, with particular reference to New England communities, by Gaylord C. Cummin, a consultant on city and municipal management problems. Says Mr. Cummin, for example: "In going into this question of the expenditures and, basically, that is the chief difficulty-we can fairly divide the entire problem of taxation into two divisions: first, cost of government; and, second, the distribution of that cost. We have heard something about the equitable distribution of the cost. In general, the distribution of the cost in New England is terrible. It is based upon statutes many of which were originally drawn in colonial times, and they have been patched and patched and patched until no human being knows what they mean. They contradict each other and do all kinds of queer things, and it is usually the job of a board of assessors, generally made up of the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker, to interpret them and work under them. "It is possible to have economy in government if you want economy in government; I am not so sure that you do. It is not only that the politician spends money foolishly in public affairs, but the politician often spends money foolishly because hard-headed and sensible business men insist upon his spending it. You can all think of examples in your own cities of where, on one hand, you have a group of representative business men insisting that the cost of government be cut down and, on the other hand, the same men are going to the city fathers and demanding that certain things be done. Well, you just can't do both." Illustrating the kind of inefficiency F ... building wealth with sunshine and soil LORIDA... the true Florida of natural advantages and stable values... now wears a normal dress. Its sheen is no less bright for discarded tinsels which bespoke only pleasure in its sunshine and winter-homes for its land. The true great ness of Florida has always rested on agri'culture and business. This is illustrated by the marked activities of the railroads which serve the state. In 1923-26, a single road spent $61,000,000 in Florida; in 1925 another road, $13,000,000; a third large carrier, in 1926, estimated its construction, completed and completing in Florida, to cost $50,000,000. To these totals must be added much larger sums for work, out of the state, necessary to handling Florida's increasing traffic. It is plain that such expenditures are being made only for sound business reasons ... the main business being to carry staple foods to the densely populated sections of our country. From berries to beans, corn to cocoanuts, to citrus fruits, potatoes, rice or onions... the sunshine and soil of Florida produce great harvests each year. When northern demand is greatest, prices highest, these golden harvests turn literally to gold. Like the rest of the South, Florida offers sound and attractive investments, in the obligations of her communities and her industries. For years, Caldwell & Company have assisted materially the financing of Southern progress while helping investors, throughout the country, to a sound choice of attractive Southern securities. We should be glad to send you our current suggestions upon request. CALDWELL & COMPANY 503 UNION STREET, NASHVILLE, TENN. that comes from failure to understand finance, Mr. Cummin writes: "Let me cite a few personal experiences in working with communities trying to improve their efficiency in the expenditure of public funds. The chief trouble is that most of them do not quite understand their finances. That is entirely excusable when we remember that one large city recently elected a barber as city treasurer. I was working with the budget of the school board in that city-not in New England-made up of successful business men. They wanted to levy $150,000 to pay for a floating deficit of $300,000. They had just had their books audited by a firm of certified Jackson "I analyzed a sinking fund a little while ago. It was planned to levy $41,000 for the annual installment this year. Analysis showed that the sinking fund already had $252,000 more in it than necessary to repay the bonds at maturity. In our analysis of the accounts of the city, we were able to find $114,000 they did not know they had, which we applied to reducing taxation. "A certain city was having difficulty in letting its street contracts. They were getting very high bids, and could not see why they should pay higher prices than neighboring cities. We went over their contract form. It was a contract which gave the city a chance to interfere at every point; some city official had the final say on everything. When we eliminated all the uncertainties of that nature, the contractors were able to put their prices down where they belonged. public accountants, and they had had them audited for many years, but the superintendent of schools told me he could not see how that deficit had increased in the past year, because he had stayed well within his budget. Well, we went into it, and we found items, amounting to several hundred thousand dollars apiece, that did not appear on the books because they were accounts receivable. They did not put those on the books, and therefore the auditors had not seen them and did not know anything about them. Instead of a deficit "Another city was building its streets so badly that the authorities had convinced themselves that no paved street could last over five years. Investigation showed they were using obsolete specifications, and their inspection was sketchy, to put it mildly. When we came to glance over the sewer plansand I should mention that this city is built on a ledge-we discovered they were building them at a minimum depth that was two feet more than was necessary. That provision alone added about twenty per cent to the cost of their sewers." of $300,000, they really had a surplus of $354,000, and they did not levy that $150,000. What, if anything, is the remedy for this situation? It seems rather hopeless, and it is particularly discouraging to taxpayers-more so to them than to bond-owners. "Elect honest men to office" will not do it. The trouble lies deeper and goes to the root of our difficulties in attempting to create a democracy that is economical. It goes back to what seems to us the basic fact in American public life-the indifference and ignorance of the average citizen as to public affairs. If this is true, the only adequate remedy is for the taxpayers to overcome their indifference and turn their ignorance into knowledge. A taxpayer single-handed cannot do this unless he is master of his own time and possesses an independent income. But taxpayers associated together, contributing to the employment of some competent analyst of municipal involvements, can work amazing wonders. In the interest of the investment which most of us have in some com munity, in some more or less uneconomical municipality, give this at least one moment's thought. W. L. S. |