The Charlotte News

Saturday, February 22, 1941

FIVE EDITORIALS

They Favor It Only So Far As It Serves Their Ends

The argument by which the drys back up their demand for a state-wide referendum on the return of prohibition and the bootlegger, as provided in the bill introduced in the Legislature yesterday, is that of--democracy. The state returned a majority of 184,000 against the repeal of the 18th Amendment, they say, and so democracy demands that they must be allowed to vote on whether liquor can legally be sold anywhere in the state.

That is based upon the proposition that the majority has a right to do anything it desires, to force other people to conform in their personal habits to the majority rule of conduct--which is the negation of the democratic idea. But even if one accepts their logic, they may be in danger of proving too much.

The assumption with which they start is that the state is somehow the only proper unit for decisions in democracy. They didn't feel that way at all in 1935, and now they have decided that it best suits their interest. And so, they coolly propose to ignore the decision of the 26 counties which have voted to establish liquor stores, to ignore the wishes of the majority in these counties, to deprive these counties of revenues without their consent, and to force them to conform to the dry dogma--to go back to the bootlegger and the racketeer.

The only possible way that can be justified is by saying that the larger unit takes precedence over the smaller. But if that is so--look where the drys have landed.

The United States is obviously the ultimate unit, and the population of the United States in general has voted overwhelmingly to abolish prohibition as a ghastly experiment which served simply as an incubator of national corruption. And so the dry logic would inexorably require that the whole country should have legal sale--that the rest of the nation should not be subjected to the ills which rise up and spread from any prohibition area.

That would be democracy.

But you will not find the drys agreeable to that.

Robert Rice Shows Where His Sympathies Lie

If there had been any doubt about where the sympathies of Robert Rice Reynolds are, it would have been removed after he made that speech in the Senate Thursday.

He labored hard to set up the conception of Hitler as merely another Napoleon. Then he said that Napoleon also had been called a murderer, a robber, and a tyrant aiming at world conquest, but that in the end it all proved to be mere hysteria.

But perhaps the most remarkable thing he said was this:

The "Godless," of course, were the Loyalists, and he is trying to smear them all with the Communist tarbrush simply because some Communists fought on their side and Russian Communists betrayed them--all the poor exploited people of Spain who sought escape from unbearable ills.

And "those who worshipped the Almighty?" The Spanish Fascists, of course. At their head Butcher Franco, who ordered the massacre of Guernica by German bombers--in which massacre 700 men and women and children in an unidentified village were murdered in cold blood.

Worshipper of the Almighty, eh? Robert seems to be going in for Dr. Rosenberg's pantheon.

Aid for Argentina Should Be Carefully Safeguarded

Argentina's desire to buy military equipment in the United States must depend on aid for Britain in any case. But, only` when there are enough planes, ships, and guns to go around, a good deal should be required of her before she is allowed to have them.

Plain fact of the matter is that the present vice-president of the republic, who really rules because of the illness of the president, is a Nazi sympathizer, such that he has rearranged the Cabinet, and it now contains a majority of Nazi-sympathizers. So long as the ailing president lives, he will hold these in check but his death may occur at anytime.

Moreover, it definitely will be to Argentina's economic interest to go along with the Nazis if Hitler wins the war. Europe furnishes the main market for her beef and wheat--her main products--, and the United States cannot possibly absorb these products of which she already has too much on her own account. But if Argentina trades with Hitler, she would trade on Hitler's terms. And those terms will undoubtedly include a Nazified government for the country, and a free hand for the Germans to establish themselves there and exploit the natural resources.

So far as Argentina actually wants to insure her independence, we should aid her in every way possible. But before we sell her war machines, we want to be definitely certain that they will not presently be turned against ourselves.

Japanese, However, Continue To Serve Hitler's Purpose

The chief immediate danger of war with Japan seems to lie in the possibility of an "incident" or action by some hot-head among the Japanese commanders, who have little responsibility to their government.

Japan's concentration of ships at Saigon apparently has had for one of its objects the testing out of the will of Britain and the United States to act if she attempted aggression southward.

If so, she got her answer quickly. The British promptly landed a large Australian force to defend the Malay Peninsula against any attack overland from Thailand. A sufficient number of planes were sent to Singapore to give the British command of the air over China Sea, more are being sent. The approaches to the naval base were mined, Japanese ships barred from all but two harbors of British Borneo, a check of the large number of Japanese "immigrants" to that island begun.

In Washington the President warned Japan. The House of Representatives appropriated large sums to turn Guam and Samoa into naval bases. The news is allowed to leak out that the Pacific battle fleet was "maneuvering" in striking distance of China Sea.

And so now the Japs are moaning solemnly about the British and American defensive moves as being "aggression" against Japan, about their passionate love for peace and justice. Chances probably are that they won't strike now until the outcome of the great Hitler offensive in Europe is evident--not at all if the decision goes against him. Meantime, however, they serve Hitler's purpose of diverting the attention of the United States and scattering Britain's forces.

State Halts Legislature's Effort To Misuse Power

It took a Federal Court to halt the disgraceful activities of Little Ed Rivers against the good name of Georgia. But Missouri seems of a mind to attend to her own dirty linen.

In November Missouri elected a Governor. When the votes were counted one Forrest C. Donnell came out on top with a margin of 3,613 over one Lawrence McDaniel.

But that started something. Brother Donnell was a Republican. Brother McDaniel a Democrat--and the Democrats had control of the Legislature, looked with no pleasure upon the prospect of having to deal with the Republican Governor.

So they set out to do something about it. First, they charged fraud against the Republicans. But they did not stop with that. Instead of letting Mr. Donnell be inaugurated and waiting for the courts to decide the issue, they passed a bill that he shouldn't be inaugurated, and setting a committee of their own, packed with good Democrats, to pass on the question.

But they reckoned without their host. Governor Lloyd Stark, Democrat, vetoed the bill, cut off legislative pay, announced that he meant to see justice done to Donnell. Then Donnell went to the Missouri Supreme Court.

Thursday that court ordered that Donnell should be inaugurated at once. The legislative Democrats can still get their fraud charge heard--but by legal methods. And Misssouri is not going to be disgraced by a wanton misuse of power such as has disgraced so many states in recent years.