The Charlotte News

Tuesday, November 19, 1940

THREE EDITORIALS

 

Site Ed. Note: In "Imperial Yell", the reference to Guadalajara is to the March, 1937 battle in the Spanish civil war in which the Loyalists won out against the Franco led fascist Nationalists, heavily supported by Italian "volunteers". The 30,000 Italian troops swept through the lines early in the battle but advanced too fast to preserve their communications and supply lines. A snow storm grounded Italian planes, further compromising the advance. Eventually the out-manned Loyalists were able to hold the city. Guadalajara and its surrounding heights were key to defending Madrid from the insurgent Nationalists. The victory of the Loyalists was short-lived, however, as city after city fell to Franco from June, 1937, eventually cutting the Loyalist army in half, until finally the Nationalists entered Madrid on April 1, 1939. Ernest Hemingway's coverage of the war earned him $40,000 which he reportedly provided to the Loyalists for purchase of ambulances. Of course, Hemingway himself had been an ambulance driver in France in World War I, experiences he relied upon in writing A Farewell to Arms.

For more on Caporetto, see "Italian Fight", May 10, 1940.

On this date, a successful air raid was undertaken by RAF and Greek pilots into Italian-held Koritza. Koritza, in Albanian territory, was a key staging ground for the Italian campaign to control Greece.

 

The Baptists

A Note Concerning Visitors in the City

The Baptists are the most numerous religious group in North Carolina and have been so from early times. And they are at home in Charlotte where they have been strong for a long time.

When we wrote "religious group" above we had to haul up short, for we were about to write "church," and the Baptists don't care for that. They are the greatest individualists among the larger denominations, at least, and they have always insisted that they are not a church but many churches. Every congregation, that is, remains independent and associates with the others for common purposes only voluntarily. That has members of the other denominations, used to the institution of episcopacy or some other form of close general church government.

How, then, did the Baptists enforce orthodoxy and keep their group from falling apart into as many heresies as there are churches? They seem to have no trouble about it. They have in common a simple and clear set of principles, and, for all their individualism, it is the custom for the churches to look to leaders in the denomination for general interpretations. They are in fact one of the most orthodox groups in the country.

Yet they have been more tolerant than rigid orthodoxy sometimes is. Wake Forest College, for example, took the lead among denominational colleges in bringing scientific studies to the South. There was some unrest about that among part of the membership, but it never broke out into repressive action.

Altogether, they are good people individually and in the aggregate. And we are glad to have them meeting in the city.

 

Hard Words

They Hardly Help To Bring About a Labor Peace

The offer of the executive council of the American Federation of Labor to have its representatives meet with representatives of the CIO "anywhere, any time, and any place" may be a little redundant, but it is clear enough and sounds fair enough.

But the council does the cause of peace in Labor's ranks no service by insisting that "the responsibility for failure to meet, confer, and endeavor to settle differences, rests fully and absolutely with the leader of the CIO movement."

Neutral observers do not generally agree with that. John Lewis is certainly a great stumbling block to any peace in Labor. But then, so the observers agree, is Bill Green, AFL chieftain.

Lewis promised to get out as CIO head if Willkie failed of election. Yesterday he made good on that promise. He will continue as head of United Mine Workers, the single most important union in CIO, and from that position will undoubtedly continue to wield much influence.

Even so, the AFL council isn't precisely smoothing the waters in saddling him with the whole blame for the Labor war. It irritates many CIO men who still idolize him. And the AFL group might better be concerned with the question as to whether getting rid of Green, since Lewis has made good on his promise, wouldn't help the cause of peace along.

 

Imperial Yell

Benito, I., Fights a Great Battle With the Wind

Great Caesar was hopping mad. His eagles to date had all turned out to be rabbits. Caesar had nodded and failed sufficiently to con the lessons of Caporetto and Guadalajara. And was now reduced to fighting with big words. If they had been legions, the war would have been over in a jiffy.

But, as usual, he was a little mixed. "Whatever happens," he thundered, "I will never turn back." Which was fine, except for the fact that he had already turned back. The Greeks hadn't consulted him. They had just turned him back, brutally and most impolitely. For that, he roared, he would have revenge if it took a year. He had one million men under arms, by golly. But he neglected to say they had to be transported to Albania, and that the British navy and the RAF objected to that.

As for the cause of the war with Greece, it was quite simply that Greece hated Italy. As for the cause of that hatred, it was a deep, dark inexplicable mystery. Greeks, you see, ought to be proud to be slaves to the men of Caporetto and Guadalajara and Koritza.

Caesar, however, overlooked one trick out of his master's bag. Caesar said English claims about what they did to the Italian navy at Taranto was a flat lie. But when the British have lied, Master Hitler has always known how to show them up; he takes the American reporters to see for themselves. All Caesar needed to do to prove the British liars was to take the American reporters in Rome down to Taranto and show them those three battleships alive and kicking and rearing to go. But Caesar seemed in no hurry about that. Maybe Caesar had his reasons.

 

 


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