Clinton's Big Job

Off to war last week went Los Angeles' Clifford Edmond Clinton. The song in his heart was that of a man who knows that life is good.

The management of his two fantastic cafeterias ("We pray our humble service be measured not by gold but by the Golden Rule") he left to eleven assistants and his wife. Los Angeles' future he consigned to his followers in his Citizens Independent Vice Investigating Committee (civic).

Said he in his valedictory as he started for Fort Benning, Ga., a second lieutenant, at 42, in the medical administrative corps: " I could say, sure, I'm more useful at home, but in my heart I'd know I wasn't. . . . Not every citizen can go -- I could."

Free Unless Delighted. Los Angeles will miss slender, square-jawed Clifford Clinton. In 1931, after depression rocked his seven San Francisco cafeterias, he moved there with $2,000 to open Brookdale Cafeteria, where each customer's check has an IMPORTANT NOTICE: "You may pay what you wish or dine free unless delighted." Hunger has always horrified him since boyhood days when, with his Salvation Army parents, he lived in China and saw gaunt Chinese devouring an oatmeal poultice his father had put on an old man's carbuncle.

During an early period of 90 days, 10,000 broke and hungry people ate free at Brookdale cafeteria. From 800 paid meals a day, patronage jumped to 16,000. The record is over 26,000 in his two present cafeterias. Now Clinton has 600 employes--"Associates" who have bargaining rights, a share in profits, paid vacations, medical service, music lessons, inspirational literature, little interest in joining unions.

At Brookdale one can buy 1-c- and 5-c- meals (soup, bread, beans, vegetable, dessert, coffee). A pastel booklet explains: "This service is not a charity but a business transaction which Clinton's regards as its special privilege." It is a business transaction, because Clinton has made money.

Customers get free birthday cakes for parties (11,000 in 1940), lollypops, advice on personal problems, sherbet that comes out of a tunnel operated by an electric eye or flows like lava out of a volcano, leaflets of poesy & precept called Clinton's Food For Thot.

Pacific Seas. Clinton's second cafeteria is the Pacific Seas. He and his wife selected tropical materials for it in Hawaii last fall. Its giant bamboo came from Formosa. Its fac,ade has a 15-foot waterfall; inside is a goldfish-filled brook. Fantastic lights combine plastic and neon flowers. Many Californians think it's grand.

Customers' checks average 35-c- (profit 1/2-c- a meal). They join the waiters in community singing. During religious songs, blue neon crosses light up the walls. In the Pacific Seas' "rain hut" every 20 minutes diners hear the sound of rain on the roof. At Brookdale visitors hear a recording of Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life and a two-minute sermon on Story of the Redwoods in a tiny chapel.

"A Great City." Clifford Clinton, father of two sons, one daughter, got into public affairs in 1934 when he investigated waste in the big Los Angeles County hospital. Then Judge Ben Lindsey named him to a grand jury. Most of the jurymen opposed Clif's efforts to investigate vice, so he and three other members organized CIVIC. During Clinton's crusades his 18-room house was bombed, people were sent in to poison his food, his taxes were raised $6,700 on one property. Once a trick motorcycle rider crashed into his 16-cylinder Cadillac to fake an accident for damage action.

Clif shrugs off the ridicule, smiling. In over 1,600 broadcasts he always reminded "the little people"--meaning common people--of their rights to resist politicians. He sees Los Angeles as a place of archaic transportation, bungling governments, gypped strangers, hidden resources. He would like to put observation tunnels through oil fields and movie studios so tourists could see what goes on. Says he: "If we could begin to apply the intelligence available to the solution of these problems, we'd have a great city."

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