Judge — September 12, 1931 — page 25: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

M«: Stuart Ciase’s is the convie- A"* tion that the machine is a Prank- enstein monster busy swallowin any that industrial civilization is just at syp designed to mulct Mr. Ultimate Consumer; and that the working man is a robot being ground into oblivion beneath the rubber heels of the capi- talists, Always hoping to be fair, he writes provocative books which terrifying in that, while intendin| debunk large vapitalistic hoaxes or garrote industrial civilization, they always scare the wits out of the rea er—his facts, surmises and prophee are so damning and awesome, The reader usually gets the feeling that everything is pretty awful and that he ought to do something about it be- fore things go black forever. But Mr. Chase usually advises the wrong thing. Recently Mr. Chase wrote a book called “Men and Machines” that so fascinated and terrified us with the horrors of machine civilization we abandoned our Ford and took to rid- ing to the station every morning by oxeart. This, however, made us so late for work we stood in danger of losing our job, and so it was cither jettison ing Mr. Chase’s opinions or being swallowed by the machine. And that's the way with Mr. Chase's opinions. He has an extremely lib- eral attitude, but he has the conscience and imagination of a damn. ing priest. His retrogressive point is highly infectious and he m his readers long to give up the pains and trials of modern civilization and ‘k into the womb of an ex ly, primitive paradise. But it is a re- » and weak viewpoint we ion-shout- right dop minded intellectuals, he and is too vague for pra, poses. ow Mr. Chase has re-discovered Mexico and found some for it! There it use Hearst editorial writers, annoying no one except border sheriffs with a bloodlust, and living a fly-specked ctable life under the hot sun till Mr. Chase swooped down on it on his little burro to sce if it had anything to offer America, in the shape of a model for Mr. Chase’s dream ideal of perfect civilization. What he smelled and felt he put a book-of-the-month-selection called “Mexico, a Study in Two Americas.” All hail to the statistic-laden Cortez of the (weekly) Nation! Mr. Chase saw, heard, smelt and felt plenty. His sensations make the heard, down on saw, tost informative, entertaining book on Mexico we've yet laid iris to. But, as we've hinted, Mr. Chase was no simple Cook's tourist. some ills. He had come to cure So, instead of taking every- thing for what it was, he went to work and started a lot of pretty odorous comparin: Selecting a typical Amer- Middletown” (Muncie, In- diana), he stacked it up against a typical Mexican village found Middletown wanting, ican town and Middletown he saw in the throes of depression; hundreds of men out of work; everybody living in the ques- tionable comforts provided by the tories, such as plumbing, motor cars and washing machines; not’ enough food to go around, But ah! here in Tepoztlan, Mexie rything was the it was back in Eden (only a little lier). No terrible mail-order tools to be seen to help in the garden- ing or in the home. Tho there were a few sewing machines, thank goodness the wooden plow was still in use. Yes, perhaps some women were so corrupt- ed by civilization as to be using a Ford engine to grind corn—it did spoil the picturesque effect of using two pounding-stones—but how can you keep a man like Ford in his own back d?— Further, every third day every wer went to the fiesta, where the princi amusements were bell-ringing, shoot- off fireworks and guns, gambling and praying. And where in Middle- town could you have such real sport? None of the greasers could read, but reading leads to dangerous things like the necessity for book crities. There was, lastly, enough corn to go round and last the whole year—nobody was hungry, no depression—everybody was happy ina dirty pagan way. W "4 by this time you may have caught on to what we've been try. ing to tell you. We'll lay off Mons. Chase. But it does seem to us—de- pression or no depression—if you'd rather live in a hot, squalid country in a one-room house, with three babies, cats, dogs, chickens and hogs sharing your bed and board with you, rather than in a house with plumbing, a ga- age, and separate dormitories for the livestock, that’s your business. We know what we like. Also, we think Mr. Chase is a bit hysterie in his sug- gestions that there ought to be a little Mexico introduced into every Middle- town. We think different. We think there once was—but thank goodness we've cleaned it up. The necessity now scems to go on from where we've arrived. —Tep Sua ody laid off doing nothing and | W he > sal too fast and your lids hang digestion Ever blame your hurried-up lunch and over-taxed digestion for that dreadful afternoon drowsiness? Then chew a stick of Beeman’s after eating. It’s the pepsin gum— the most pleasant of all digestive aids that was perfected by Dr. Beeman over 30 years ago. You'll love this delicious chewing gum that millions now prefer—for its full rich flavor, its satisfying smoothness and for the way it aids digestion. Ask for a pack of Beeman’s when you pay your luncheon check. BEEMAN’S PEPSIN GUM aids digestion comicbooks.com