SANTA CLAUS

Southland Times, Issue 23376, 7 December 1937, Page 7

SANTA CLAUS

STRIFE-TORN VILLAGE

NEW YORK, November 10.

Peace on earth and goodwill among men will be missing from the village of Santa Clause, Indiana, during Christmas. The population has taken sides in a bitter controversy between two rival promotors, one from Chicago, who seek to exploit commercially the only spot on earth bearing the name of the Monarch of Goodwill.

The dispute is now in the Courts and may eventually reach the Supreme Court of the United States.

Adding to the unrest is a dispute over an artist’s representation of Santa Claus, executed to decorate one of the story-book groves of toyland that have been erected by the warring promotors at each end of the town. Objection was taken by the villagers to the genial Father Christmas being depicted with a sword in one hand and a 17th century helmet in the other. The artist pleaded that it was authentically correct; that the Santa Claus legend dated back to the militant Archbishop of Myra, in Asia Minor, who was canonized as Saint Nicholas. When the artist gave way and replaced the sword with a horn, and the helmet with a stocking-cap, a fresh outburst centred around the “tin-horn Santa.” Children were disappointed at the absence of the bag of toys.

The history of the village dates back to 1846, when it was settled by German toy makers and wood carvers. The first name chosen, Santa Fe, was disallowed as there was another town of that name in the State. Another meeting, held on Christmas Eve, inspired the present name. When eventually the mail for Santa Claus, sent to be remailed with the magic postmark, assumed enormous dimensions, the Post Office changed the name. Congress, in response to public outcry, restored it. As was inevitable, commercial exploiters conceived the plan of converting Santa Claus into a nursery-rhyme amusement park, with a toy town and an enchanted forest. Most of the villagers have either sold or leased their land to the syndicates.