The Charlotte News

Tuesday, October 27, 1942

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: On the front page, Leland Stowe reports from Rzhev on the Russian front that Russian field commanders diminished the battle worthiness of the M-3 Grant tank from America. Said one general, "They burn like torches."

But not only was the superior M-4 Sherman tank now in steady production, but Operation Torch was also shortly to embark on its mission to open a second front, even if, strictly speaking, it was not immediately to be Europe where Stalin would have preferred.

Detailed reports were now being released to the public of the sinking of the Wasp on September 15 while convoying a supply mission to Guadalcanal; not yet reported, of course, was further bad news, the loss of the Hornet the day before in the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a general report of which is contained among this day’s stories.

Interestingly, the report mentions specifically the sinking of the destroyer Porter and damage to one of the four carriers thought still to be remaining in the Pacific, presumably the Enterprise. In fact, not only was the Hornet also gone but the Saratoga was under repair in Hawaii after having its electrical circuits knocked out in a torpedo attack during the Battle of the Eastern Solomons on August 25. It would not be operational again in the South Pacific until early December. The Yorktown had been lost at Midway in June; the Lexington had been sunk in the Battle of the Coral Sea in May. Both of the losses were known to the public, albeit in the case of the Yorktown, not disclosed until the previous month, three months after the fact.

Thus, after October 26 and for the next two weeks until Enterprise returned from repairs, there were not four carriers operational in the Pacific as the press believed, but none. Indeed, the intrepid crew of the Enterprise had painted a sign on deck: "Enterprise vs. Japan".

The Essex, launched in July, would not be battle-ready until spring. A new Lexington had been launched in September but would not see battle for a year. During the ensuing year, fully six other new carriers would be launched, starting in December with the Bunker Hill and in January with the new Yorktown. The other four were the Franklin, Intrepid, and the new Wasp and Hornet. Ticonderoga would follow at the beginning of 1944. All of these were heavy carriers of 27,000 tons each, roughly the size of the heavy Japanese carriers, Shokaku and Zuikaku.

The editorial page reports of Governor Broughton’s conciliation of the election issue over amending the state constitution to include a provision whereby there would be a state board of education. The Governor, admitting the amendment needed improvement, counseled nevertheless a vote to pass it so that he could then get the Legislature to revise it for passage in 1944. Says The News, "Now, due to the Governor’s conciliation, everything is going to be jake."

That form of praise, coming a day after the Navy announced the sinking of the Wasp and a day after the fact of the sinking of the Hornet.

"Navy Day" celebrates the 167^th birthday of the Navy, founded in 1775, with a brief history of its highlights, including its most recent heroics of 1942, starting with the Battle of the Macassar Strait in early February.

"Billion No. 1" gives praise to the effort of General Motors in turning out tanks, trucks, airplane engines, and guns for the war effort, having announced the first billion dollars spent on defense since February when the automobile manufacturers were ordered to cease production of civilian passenger vehicles for the duration and convert their assembly lines to military application.

Both Paul Mallon and Raymond Clapper write of the delicate issue of censorship of war news, Mallon appearing to support most of the blackouts on fresh reports while Clapper finds a good deal of fault with the system, especially as headlines and official reports proved misleading on closer review, the more accurate story accessible by the reader of each day’s newspaper, but only upon deeper assessment than afforded by superficial reading of headlines and opening paragraphs, tending to stress minor achievements in battle, portraying consequently a rosier picture than the overall accounts evidenced.

And one letter writer has a novel suggestion for altering the concept of poll taxes, $5 assessed for not voting save in circumstances of proper absenteeism or illness, while another writer, a perennial contributor, focuses her attention on the evils of alcohol consumption and prophesies the doom of the nation in the war should it not turn from its tippling ways. The editorial on which she founded her moral disgust was from the Greensboro Daily News, cast in the form of an open letter to Josephus Daniels, appearing in The News October 21.

During Prohibition, she offers, she saw not "a half-dozen ‘drunks’" despite her not living "in a closet". Obviously, however, she did not visit the speakeasies, even if she was out of the closet. Probably, since it was illegal, all the drunks were in the closet.

In any event, most firsthand accounts from the time dispute the efficacy of Prohibition in fostering anything but intemperance. It was a convenient mode of attack of the opposition, of course, to label anyone not in agreement as being either a drunk, a purveyor of bootleg whiskey, or at least an enabler in league with the Devil. In all such campaigns attempting to legislate morality, it is so.