Wanted . . .

A typical small-town newspaper is the News-Commercial, published in Collins, Miss. (pop. 1,100) by a typical smalltown editor: Mayor and onetime Lawyer James Duncan Arlington. Unlike many another small-town newspaper, the four-page, weekly News-Commercial (circulation: 1,350) does not take itself too seriously. Once it printed a list of delinquent subscribers under the head: "Shall the Dead Live Again?" Lately it quipped editorially: "We see ... where they have started a new kind of paper [the tabloid, PM] in New York. No advertisements will be carried in it. There ain't nothing new about that idea--we have been darn near running that kind of paper* for ten years."

The whimsical News-Commercial recently published some ads for the fun of it. Smeared across two columns on Page 1 were a series of advertisements which Editor Arrington printed to "wake up" the people of Mississippi. Samples:

>WANTED--48 STATES IN AMERICA, A. Hitler and Co.. Berlin, Germany.

>BEST BY TEST--Nazi No-Stop Gasoline Gets More Deaths Per Mile. In actual tests made in Belgium and France, tanks and airplanes using Nazi No-Stop gasoline averaged 5,000 dead men, women and children per mile.

>MALE HELP WANTED--Our organization due to recent expansion is in need of additional men in the United States. Applicants must be opposed to democratic forms of government. Apply in own handwriting to: Fifth Column, c/o German Embassy, Washington, D. C.

>FOR SALE-200 MILES OF MAGINOT LINE. Only slightly used. Can be cut up and made into nice comfortable storm pits, wine cellars or foundations for WPA privies.

*An exaggeration. Actually 50 to 70% of News-Commercial space is advertising.

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