Transport: Bill to Roost

On an August morning in 1937, Inspector Norman R. Arthur was patrolling the harbor of Honolulu looking for violators of the Federal law against dumping garbage into U. S. waters. Around 10 o’clock, as he eased his motor sampan under the overhanging stern of the Dollar Steamship Lines steamer, President Coolidge, he obtained first-hand evidence. A Chinese mess boy leaned over the rail and dumped a pail of swill, “cabbage, orange peel, celery, tea leaves and water,” squarely on Inspector Arthur’s head.

When the case came to trial the insulted U. S. inspector was unshakable in his testimony. A U. S. judge in Hawaii fined the Coolidge $500. Last week in San Francisco the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the $500 paid. But meanwhile, in this complicated world, Dollar Lines has been taken over by the American President Line and the American President Line has the Government of the U. S. behind it. Net result: from the U. S. subsidized line to the U. S. inspector’s employer, $500 for garbage inopportunely dumped.