Page Two
The Chapel Hi Weekly
LOUIS GRAVES Editor
JOE JONES Assistant Editor
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Ins id* Ornate County. Year *2
(6 raos., sl-5«; 3 mas-, $1)
Outside Orange County. Year S 3
(6 mimu, $2; 3 mo*., $1.60)
Foreign (by the year). Mexico and
South America. $4: Canada, $6;
Other Countries, $3.50.
ir.lrrri a* m«m< ■**'*• fetoruacr ®
ItSi, at ’lt* pwtoffK* «t Chap* Bit. North
Carolina itaAe* Cb* a® B* 7 * 6 t. l*t*-
Delayed Action on Clean-L'p
The Raleigh News and Ob
server declares it to be a Demo
cratic responsibility to clean out
completely all officials whose
standards of private honor in the
public sen-ice are not above sus
picion and beyond reproach,
and goes on to say: “Fortunate
ly, there is evidence that this is
being done. Ali the disclosures
so far made and all the investi
gations now - going forward have
been under the direction of
Democrats.”
This seems rather too gentle
toward the Democratic admin
istration. Os course the official;
investigations have to Ire “under
the direction of Democrats;”!
thfs is routine, because the
Democrats an in the majority
in Congress and therefore have
the committee chairmanships
and a majority in every com
mittee meml>ership. Rut much
of their investigating activity
has been the result of prodding
by Republicans inside and out
side of Congress as well as by
non-partisan critics. The man
who deserves the main credit
for digging out the facts about
corruption in the Internal Rev
enue Bureau, the worst corrup
tion yet revealed in all the in
vestigations was Republican
Senator Williams of Delaware.
On the same page with the
News and Observer editorial
here quoted is the statement by
Drew Pearson: “Most of the
Dem<x:ratic strategy planners
have made up their mind that
the chief issue in the 1952 cam
paign will be corruption. The
more they look over the fieid of
candidates, the better Senator
Kefauver looks to them. The
President heartily dislikes Ke
fauver, as he does Senator Doug
las of Illinois and others who
have nudged him.”
There are a great many people
in the country—not meaning,
here, Republicans and other
anti-Trumanites, but independ
ent-minded people—who, I feel
sure, believe that President Tru
man has had to be nudged into
doing anything about corruption
in government departments. He
has certainly given the impres
sion of not having any enthus
iasm about a clean-up until he
was forced to it by public out
cry.
“The disclosures of crooked
ness in the Internal Revenue
Bureau appalled the public,
which was already resentful of
low ethical standards in the Ad
ministration,” writes Arthur
Krock in the New York Times.
“After the popular feeling had
been expresed in various ways
the President took his first stem
step# against offending officials.
Now the President has begun a
house-cleaning in which for a
long time he showed no interest
and the necessity for which he
refused to concede.”
A Puzzle
An Associated Press dispatch
from Washington says that 2,575
professional gamblers have
bought the new gambling tax
stamp. The Revenue Bureau has
decided to send the names and
addresses of the buyers to po
lice departments and prosecut
ing officers throughout the na
tion. The operations of the gamb-
j lers are illegal under the laws
of most states. Now local law en
forcement agencies, with the
i
record of stamp purchases m
’ j their possession, have what is
equivalent to a declaration by
the purchasers of intention to
violate the law. Os course these
stamp holders cannot be convict
j r
ed until they actually proceed to
'commit the violation, but the
fact of‘their having bought the
gambling tax stamp gives prose
. cutors strong evidence to present
against them in court.
Local law enforcement author
ities estimate that about 18,000
persons are potential registrant#
under the new law. The law re
quires that gamblers must turn
jover to the government 10 per
cent of their take—all the money
placed with them, not merely the
j profits—in monthly payments.
The first installment, cm Novem
ber bets, is due December 31. The
Internal Revenue Bureau re
, minds inquirers that the initial
fee paid by a gambler is for an
j occupational stamp and is not a
license or permit.
The federal government’s tax
on gambling in states where
gambling is illegal is parallel to
' its tax on the sale of liquor in
states where the sale of liquor
! is illegal. In North Carolina the
sale of liquor is illegal except
in the county and city stores
established under state law, the
-o-called A.B.C. stores. The most
familiar form of bootleg liquor
in North Carolina is tax-paid
'liquor For many years boot
leggers have been receiving large
(quantities of standard brands of
liquor from distilleries or whole
sale dealers in other states.
These bootleggers have paid the
1 t
liquor tax required of all sellers,
legal or illegal, by the federal
government. The only way sell
ers can pay this tax is by buying
'stamps from an Internal Ri-v
--,enue Collector This is a public
transaction and the names of
| the buyers are a matter of public
: record.
' Since the enactment of the
gambling laws there has been
much talk about how this law,
bringing the gamblers into the
open, is expected to clear the
way for successful prosecution
\ of gamblers under state laws.
If this expectation is reasonable,
why isn’t it just as reasonable
that there should be successful
prosecution of persons whose
sale of bootleg liquor is adver
* tised by their public purchase
of liquor tax stamps from the
government? Why these boot
> leggers haven’t been moved
against more vigorously, since
they have supplied, themselves,
* the evidence of their guilt, has
■ been a puzzle in North Carolina
' for a long time.
i
Ghoet-Writing
The comedian, Milton Berle,
. was recently sued for $250,000
. by a woman named Anita Rod
dy-Eden. She claimed (1) that
. he had engaged her to write a
, novel bearing his name as au
thor so that he would "gain fame
■ in the literary world;” (2) that
they were to share the profits
. equally; and (3) that Mr. Berle
refused to have the completed
novel published because an at
, tempted suicide by Joyce Mat
thews, his former wife, paral
leled a situation in the book.
The New York Times tells
of the dismissal of the suit by
Supreme Court Justice Morris
Eder. The most interesting
thing about the judge’s decision
is that he based it not only upon
facts relating to this particular
suit but upon the nature of
ghost-writing in general. For
another person than Mr. Berle
to write a book that would carry
his name as author, wrote the
judge, was a “deception,” was
“void and unenforceable as a
gainst public policy,” and was
“a scheme concocted and de
vised by the parties to foist de
liberately a fraud on the pub
THE CHAPEL HILL WEEKLY, CHAPEL HILL, N. C.
lic.” He said the ultimate result
of such a scheme would be to
“extract from the public the cost
of the book by means of decep
tion.”
In giving this opinion the
judge raises questions as to
the ethics of what has become
a well recognized profession and
one practiced on a large scale.
If ghost-writing is as bad as he
says it is, then not only the
ghosts but also many eminent
persons who connive with them
—industrial leaders, generals
: and admirals, diplomats, even
Presidents of the United States
—are pretty bad characters.
In recent issues of the highly
respectable Saturday Review of
Literature are these advertise
ments: “Ghost-writing articles,
theses, books, speeches.” ....
“Ghost-writer wanted to assist
on novel.” “Writing book,
play, story, thesis, article?
Style-improving, editing, criti
cism, collaboration, research,
translations.” These are just
three examples. The SRL has
been carrying advertisements
like them for a long time.
A ghost-writer is now more
commonly called a ghost. And
in fact ghost is the older term.
Who invented it, as meaning a
person who .writes something
that another person signs, does
not seem to be known. Ido not
find the inventor named in any
of the reference books I have
consulted.
Perhaps a good many people
will he surprised, as I was when
I looked it up, to learn how old
the term is. The Oxford Eng
lish Dictionary, defining ghost'
a.- “one who secretly does artis
tic or literary work for another
person, the latter taking the|
credit,” shows that the Pall Mall j
Gazette spoke of “a sculptor’s;
ghost” in 1881 ; and the same pe- [
riodical, in 1889, said that ttyQKi
were “American millioffnftlji
who make no secret about tbetjrj
/hosts,” mentioning one of these
millionaires who “advertised for
a private secretary whose chief j
duties would be the writing of i
all his speeches.”
In the Supplement to the OKI)
l a l.'lth volume published some j
forty or fifty years after the G
volume) ghost is given as a
verb, with this definition: “to
do literary or artistic work for
another person.” The fact that
the word “secretly,” used in the
G-volume, is not part of the def
inition in the later volume, is
‘evidence of how commonplace
land taken-for-granted ghost
writing has become. In publish
ing and governmental circles it
is an ordinary thing to hear so
and-so (a writer) referred to
as the ghost for so-and-so (a
financier, or a government offi
cial, or maybe an actor or an
athlete or an explorer).
There is a wide variety in
ghost-writing. Probably the
most disreputable form of the
practice is the writing of theses
for students to turn in as their
own. No doubt this kind of
fraud has been perpetrated in
an amateur way, one student
acting as ghost for another, for
hundreds of years, but now it
has been professionalized and
commercialized, as witness the
advertisement quoted above.
Often persons who have had
interesting experiences, worthy
of being related in a book or a
magazine, are without writing
ability. So, they get their ex
periences “put into shape” by
persons trained for that sort of
work. These persons are not al
ways ghosts. A ghost does not
appear by name at all; when he
performs, the only person who
appears as uuthor is the person
who has employed him. But
sometimes the employed writer
appears as collaborator, in which
case he is not a ghost. The Sat
urday Evening Post hax always
made it a practice to publish the
name of the man or woman
whom it assigns to do the writ-
ing for a person who has a story
to tell but does not know how
to tell it. A case in point is the
recent serial telling of the im
prisonment and release of Rob
ert Vogeler by the Communist
government in Hungary. Leigh
White appears in the Post as
Vogeler’s collaborator.
Unitarians to Meet Sunday
“Liberty to Know” will be the
discussion topic at a meeting of
the Unitarian Fellowship at
7:30 p.m. Sunday, December 9,
at the home of Phillips Russell
at 300 Chase avenue. The dis
cussion will be led by Mr. RusselL
Visitors are welcome, and any
who wish rides should call Mrs.
Edith Duerr at 2-2286.
The Chapel Hill Unitarian
Fellowship was organized last
month at a meeting at the
YMCA. The speaker was Munroe
Husbands of Boston, director of
fellowship units for the Ameri
can Unitarian Association.
Those present adopted by
laws, which included the follow
ing statement of purpose: “The
purpose of this Fellow-ship is to
bring religious liberals into clos
er acquaintance and cooperation;
to encourage individual members
to express freely their beliefs, so
that the total group shall be en
riched ; and to further participa
tion in advancing truth, the
democratic process in human re
lations, and brotherhood undi
vided by nation, race, or creed.”
Membership is open to all who
an- in general sympathy with
this purpose.
Literature Group to Meet
The Community Club’s litera
ture department will meet at 3
o’clock next Thursday after
noon, December 13, at the home
| of Mrs. J. A. Warren at 301
Hillsboro street, with Miss Sally
i
iPleasants and Mrs. Philip Young
Up co-hostesse*. Mrs. June C. Fox
jWfll read ftuth Sawyer’s
| Way to Christmas.’
FREE FREE FREE
17-Inch Table Model
CROSLEY TELEVISION
All you have to do is come in and
register. Drawing to be held
«r
Monday, December 24
3:00 P.M.
at
GOLDSTON GROCERY & MARKET
Carrboro, N. C.
Hugh Nanney, Mgr. E. T. Vickers, Market Mgr.
Chapel Hill Chaff
(Continued from firtt pmge)
tinction; it is the other way
around: he gives distinction, and
prestige, to the derby.
I asked Jack Lipman, the
men’s clothing merchant, yes
terday if he knew- anybody in
Chapel Hill who wore a derby.
“Not anybody who wears a real
derby,” he said, “but Carl Dur
ham wears a sort of semi-derby,
the Homburg. It is soft on top
so that you can crush it in.”
The most famous Homburg in
the world is the one that has
won its fame from being worn
by Anthony Eden. He is ex
pected to visit Washington with
Prime Minister Churchill before
long, and then the population of
Christmas Greenery
For your Christmas decorations, we have a
variety of native North Carolina greenery.
THE CAROLINA FLOWER SHOP
Opposite the Post Office
Henderson St. Phone 4851
Old-Fashioned
“PFEF FERNUESSE”
(Spiced Honey Cookies)
1 lb 75c
o
IMPORTED CHOCOLATES
• LINDT
• DROSTE
• TOHI.EK
and ....
Mr. D’s own delicious candy
DANZIGER’S
OLD WORLD RESTAURANT
C ANDY DEPARTMENT
Friday, December 7, 1951
the capital will be able to com
pare the Homburg bought (no
doubt) on Bond street, London,
with the Homburg bought in
Chapel Hill by the Congressman
from the Sixth District of North
Carolina.
At Legion Department Meeting
Paul Robertson recently went
to Elizabethtown to attend a
meeting of the executive com
mittee of the North Carolina De
parment of the American Le
gion. Attended by about 75 Le
gion officials from throughout
the state, the meeting was held
at the home of the Department
Commander, Lewis Parker. The
program included a picnic dinner
on the lawn of the Lewis home.