Great Gubs

Great Guns

The first boom was Newton D. Baker. He appeared on the platform of Cleveland's Public Hall, scene of the Republican Convention two Junes ago. He made a little speech and then the Cleveland Symphony orchestra burst into music in one of the perennial civic efforts to make good music popular. This particular effort was marked by two unusual proceedings: 1) blocks of tickets were issued to each of Cleveland's numerous foreign elements (Cleveland's population is about 80% foreign born) ; 2) the program consisted of music by composers of ten different nationalities.

Conductor Nikolai Sokoloff, emphatic Russian, closed the concert with Tchaikowski's "1812 Overture," and as the strains of the "Marseillaise" and the Russian National anthem floated out in the final bars --Boom Boom! Boom!--siege guns they sounded--fired back stage and the smoke floated out over the audience. The multi-national multi-national multitude went mad applauding, and, of course, Conductor Sokoloff made a little speech.