Dishonesty

Almost everyone, at one time or another, has bought a theatre seat, has been told by the agent that it was in the centre and found it actually far on one side. Almost everyone has been the victim of Dishonesty even more piddling--has bought a ticket which he fancied good because it was marked Row F, then discovered there were numerous unlettered rows in front of row A. So prevalent is this species of informatory weaseling that many philosophic souls wonder whether any commercialist can be utterly frank about the nature of the things he wishes to sell. Recently there has been plenty of food for such speculations.

Ticket Agents. The countless victims of ticket salesmen rejoiced on general principles last week to hear that the license of Manhattan's Adelphi Theatre Ticket Service, Inc., had been revoked. To Samuel Sprung, lawyer, the Adelphians had sold two tickets for a football game, telling him they were in the centre of the field, charging him $9 apiece, a $3 advance over the regular admission price. At the game, Lawyer Sprung sat behind the goal posts. Later he returned to the agency, was refused a $3 rebate, took legal action, triumphed.

Dentifrices. Far more widespread than ticket dupery is another form of "misrepresentation" also recently under fire. This is the so-called "dentifrice racket." Fortnight ago the liberal New Republic (weekly) called attention to various statements of the American Dental Association: "No dentifrice can be used for so-called mouth correction . . . mouth acidity or alkalinity cannot be controlled by any induced substances." The American Medical Association has declared: "Dentifrice has in itself no magical or chemical power to clean, and the best mouth washes are warm water or a solution of common table salt."

Millions of dollars are spent yearly by the public for dentifrices which have only the cleansing value of soap and water, no medicative value whatever. Strikingly in contrast to its rivals' advertisements have been those for Colgate which declared: ''Colgate's has never claimed to cure pyorrhea, to correct an acid condition of the mouth--things no toothpaste can do. Colgate does claim to clean teeth better."

Lawyers. Students of Dishonesty have recently had an absorbing spectacle in New York City, where the blight has been found to pervade even the courts which are supposed to ferret it out. An investigation of Magistrates' Courts, following upon a curious dinner attended by notable criminals and given to City Magistrate Albert H. Vitale (TIME, Jan. 6), has led to an expose of extensive, sly malpractice. Sample: Last week one Joseph Wolf man was apprehended playing checkers in a Jersey City Y. M. C. A. For four years he has appeared in Manhattan courts, a bogus lawyer who declared he "fixed" cases with the help of policemen and court officials, earned an average of $500 a week when business was good.

Magazine solicitors. Many a person has answered the door bell to find a nondescript young person who represented himself as working his way through college by selling magazines. The National Association of Travelers' Aid Societies made known that it had returned to their families over 100 such young agents, mostly girls. The Association found the purchasers often deceived about the solicitors' academic ambitions, the solicitors themselves often unfairly treated. Its report, in the case of one soliciting crew: the manager "had mastered them ... in high finance. They had gaily signed a lot of documents which made them very nearly peons. When they brought their money to him at night he didn't 'split' with them. He 'held it back' and gave them $2.25 a day subsistence money. . . . One girl was taken ill in a hick-town hotel and left there."

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