The Charlotte News

Friday, March 14, 1941

FIVE EDITORIALS

 

Site Ed. Note: As to "Dracula's Boys", leave to the California sunshine the ability to insinuate an idea to the heads of its underlings such as that described for dealing with a rampant problem of blood-suckers. Crowd the sucker into his own little vacuum until he can no longer breathe.

Ah, but regardless, you say, what with that chain nowadays on every corner charging upwards of three smackers for a cup of Joe, to have gotten Java for even a dime must have been bliss and blissen of thirst. (Indeed, a pint of Ipse not much the more.) Drop a penny in the juke and jitter the night away. Stamp a post to your best gal for three coppers during the rest. Have a chat with the boys and sip a whole pot (or jug, as the amount of sunlight should dictate in the Castle).

Ah, the good ol' days. But not so fast there, Mr. Memory.

Note that the budget still ran rampant, the national debt still soared mightily, inuring the burden to the next generation, and death and taxes still persisted, and mightily so.

Death being especially imminent, though some were still quite in denial of its sun-rising portent.

Is war no more than the need to satisfy that innate sense of the human animal, as tautologically stated in "Little Theatre", to act out drama? And regardless of the known and foreordained consequence?

As Act I has already come afoot, we must per force see Acts II and III, and then sit through the climax and dénouement...even if a tawdry, bawdy penny opera it be, with little more than the trite, twisted story already played before our eyes a thousand times again.

Jeté en tournant, a balletic movement executed in blood through and for the ages. Do we ride the temptation of the serpent, the snake, the adder, to the end? Or, shall we stand and be counted, even if in the corrupted tale of an ampersand?

Broughton "8"

A New Political Machine Seems A-Building in Raleigh

C. A. Paul's story from Raleigh yesterday on the Broughton machine a-building there made interesting reading. It had to be speculative, of course, for them who put together political machines usually do not blandly admit their intentions to a reporter's face.

But the evidence bears out the hypothesis that Paul set down after talking with politicians, political observers and everybody else who thought he perceived the trend of events. Governor Broughton, on the face of it, is riding herd on State politics.

The responsiveness of the Legislators, the reorganization of all sorts of boards and commissions with men of his own selection replacing incumbents, the submergence of the Shelby crowd's insistence, the general acceptance, indeed, of the Governor as top dog--all these things to show that he is taking command and knows precisely what he wants to do with it.

And there is nothing to show as yet, at any rate, that the Governor's intentions aren't wholly benevolent. North Carolina has been far more fortunate than most Southern states in the integrity and intelligence of its administration, but this is not to deny that the organization is susceptible to further improvement or that a house-cleaning effort every now and then may work wonders in almost any establishment.

It was too early to say with any certainty just what sort of administration Governor Broughton is going to have, but so far it looks promising.

Quaint Tale

Dr. Goebbels Tries New Slant in Willkie Yarn

The Nazis have never got far with their story that Mr. Roosevelt is really a Jew whose name is properly Rosenfeld. A few complete crackpots in this country have believed it, and it seems to have won some acceptance among the more stupid sort of Germans. But in general, the story hasn't clicked.

So when it came time to invent a story about Mr. Willkie, Dr. Goebbels took another tack. While in London Mr. Willkie made a public statement to the effect that his family left Germany ninety years ago because of their hatred of tyranny. That statement was printed on a leaflet and distributed over Germany by British planes.

It seems to have made some impression, too. For Goebbels now takes the trouble to have the German newspapers print his rejoinder. Mr. Willkie's couple really left Germany, he says, because they had been cheated out of what they possessed by a Jew and so had to emigrate. The effort is obviously one to set up Mr. Willkie as an ingrate who ought to be very thankful to Adolf Hitler for having destroyed the Jews in Germany and made such feasters impossible in the future.

This is probably mainly intended for home consumption. But from the standpoint of export value it is somewhat more clever than the inept tale about Mr. Roosevelt's extraction. Even the Coughlinite would laugh at any efforts to paint Mr. Willkie as a Jew. But many of them are silly enough to believe this invention.

Hold Tight

The Budget Gets Set for A Really Soaring Ride

While you are grumbling over your income tax this year, you may take what comfort you can in the thought that next year it will be a good deal bigger. Seven billion smackers for aid to Britain will make a large hole in your pocketbook, to say nothing of the billions already appropriated for national defense. A national debt of $75,000,000,000 is already in sight.

Burton Wheeler said grimly yesterday that he would vote for the whole sum the President has asked--and for the additional taxes which would be necessary. Wheeler, of course, meant to dissuade the effort to defend ourselves through aiding Britain by calling attention to the fact that it is going to hurt. The sum asked for is staggering. The exact amount mentioned in Congress is [indiscernible words] billions. Nevertheless, [indiscernible words] much is to be said in favor of the present course here. It is certainly [indiscernible words] to ask for the large sum [indiscernible word] instead of appropriating by [indiscernible word] as the Republicans are demanding. It serves full and fair notice on the people as to the meaning of what they are about.

Moreover, the vast sum will make it possible to plan on an adequate scale from the beginning.

But what ever did become of those old-fashioned people who used to go around talking earnestly about the necessity of balancing the budget?

Dracula's Boys

Profiteering on Soldiers Cannot Be Tolerated

At Columbia, S. C., the proprietors of rental property have been busily running up their rents to soldiers, according to an AP dispatch from that city. Apartments that have been renting to civilians at from $35 to $50 per month suddenly rise to $65 or $75 a month when the agents learn that the proposed tenant is a soldier.

The Army itself has begun to apply pressure and in some cases has secured alleviation. But no generally satisfactory method of dealing with the case has yet been developed.

At San Luis Obispo, California, the soldiers themselves discovered one way to deal with a profiteer. He ran a cafe and raised the price on coffee to ten cents a cup to soldiers though civilians can continue to buy it at five cents. The soldiers waited until his breakfast hour when his place was ordinarily full by civilians, then they crowded in, ordered nothing but coffee, proceeded to dawdle over it for hours. He called his lawyer, got no comfort, gave in, reduced his coffee to five cents again.

It would have served the fellow right had it permanently ruined his business. When men are called upon to leave their jobs, their homes, to train themselves to defend their country and their countrymen, perhaps to give up their lives, for $21 a month, efforts to hijack them become so criminal, so contemptibly criminal, they cannot and must not be tolerated. Nothing is more certainly calculated to destroy the morale of the armed forces.

This Government is obviously reluctant to resort to compulsory laws against profiteers--perhaps too reluctant. But anybody who thinks he can get away with it long, that public opinion will not force the Government to rigorous measures, is riding for a fall.

Little Theatre

Institution Is in Healthy State in This City

It was pleasant to know that the Little Theatre is now in position to go forward with its long-cherished plans to build itself a new $25,000 playhouse. The present quarters have served after a fashion but they are not well-suited to theatrical productions. The stage, lighting, and dressing-room facilities are inadequate and acoustics are none too good.

The Little Theatre is one of the genuine cultural activities in a city which has all too few of them, and has commanded a growing enthusiasm ever since its beginnings here. Paul Green and many others have argued that a people in which the theatre has become the exclusive concern, so far as direct participation goes, a little group of highly adept professionals, is the victim of atrophy of the natural instincts and desires of humanity. People like naturally to take direct part in acting out a drama.

The Little Theatre gives scope to that desire, and has unquestionably brought happiness and many solid and tangible benefits to many people. As we said in the beginning, it is pleasant to see it flourishing.

 


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