In a bid to establish himself as America's number one patriot, movie magnate Carl Laemmle, Sr. recently put himself on record as an advocate of a national "Buy American" campaign in a statement which he describes as "of such general importance that it transcends the limits of a motion picture department."

"In order to put this over we will need the cooperation of CRIMSON and every other patriotic publication in the beloved land," writes Laemmle in a letter signed "Patriotically Yours." It is rumored that the recent popularity of French films is the Ethiopian in the Universal wood pile.

Just a Boy

Just a boy at heart, Laemmle takes time off to watch the boats go by. "Just a short time ago I witnessed the unloading of a Japanese freighter in San Pedro Harbor," he writes. "The ship was discharging a vast cargo of meshed wiring which is manufactured in many sections of this country.

"The people responsible for a situation of this kind are the merchants and jobbers in America who prefer to buy things manufactured abroad at cheaper prices in their greed for profit."

He knows all about shoes as well as wire mesh, and deplores the reciprocal trade treaty with Czechoslovakia, an attitude which ought to make a hit with New England.

The retired head of Universal Pictures, who is rumored to once have demanded "someone couth" for a certain part in a picture, is deeply concerned over the fact that "The great pottery interests in this country are playing second Fiddle to Japan."