Bookmaking Reproved, Book-lending Approved (El Cerrito News in 1949)

If you go to the  at El Cerrito City Hall and turn to the now yellowed front page of the weekly El Cerrito Journal for today, May 19, in 1949, you can find a snapshot of our community in its post-war growth years. Here are some of the actual headlines from the paper's front page, followed by our brief summaries of the articles:

Trio to Show
In Legal Race
At Bar Arena

A preliminary hearing was set for June 2 by Justice of the Peace Joe Martyn Turner in the case of three men charged with bookmaking in El Cerrito. The three defendants – F.D. O'Connell, Norman Howard Crump and David Kessel – were flanked by a bank of attorneys at the hearing Tuesday before Turner. The men were arrested two weeks ago when police raided Rancho San Pablo. Police had out-manuevered O'Connell and Crump by placing a telephone call from an office directly across the street. A $100 check signed by Kessel and found on O'Connell was seized as evidence.

Local Library
Places Second
In Circulation

A report from El Cerrito librarian Rose Vainstein shows that the city's library ranked second in county in Contra Costa County for books placed in circulation in April. The Martinez library was first. El Cerrito's library loaned 5,916 books. Vainstein reported also that the library acquired 530 new volumes, bringing the total collection to 7,667 books.

Humaneering Is
Talk Topic at
C. of C. Meeting

Current upheavals between labor and management have been caused by a lack of understanding, according to a presentation by E.L. Oliver Jr., secretary of Oliver Filters, Inc., at the weekly El Cerrito Chamber of Commerce meeting. Oliver, who had made an extended study of the new social science of "humaneering," said management had neglected to recognize the need to establish relations with employees, who recently have turned to unionizing. Both sides need to make sacrifices to further national industrial harmony, the speaker said. Humaneering is a special branch of social science concerned with employer-employee relations.

Officials Attend
Chief's Conclave

El Cerrito's city manager, Edwin S. Howell, and its fire chief, O.A. Burnett, returned home with glowing reports of their attendance at the Fire Chief's Association of Northern California meeting at Hoberg's in Lake County during the weekend. A particularly hot topic at the meeting was "self service gas stations," an idea that Howell and Burnett described as not well received by the State Board of Fire Underwriters. 

Click  for other vignettes we've published about El Cerrito history. Click the Keep the Keep me posted button below for alerts to future articles in this series. You can find some back issues of the El Cerrito Journal at the Shadi Historical Room at City Hall, open to the public on the third Thursday of each month, 4:30-6 p.m.