The Charlotte News
Monday, July 22, 1940
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: Henry Wallace, who would miss becoming President by only three months in 1945, was nominated instead of John Nance Garner for Vice-President in 1940 in times, lasting through the 1968 election, when the party nominating system was based more on smoke-filled rooms and party bosses than uniform state-by-state caucuses and primaries.
As to the thorny little problem of Bali horn blowers, we assume this was by Cash as he had primary duties in these days of the editor's hiatus, and also judging by Cash's similar remarks regarding Mexico City in his last days on earth. Just why he picked on "persons of color" for this rather universal malady is one for the reader, not history, to figure, but more than likely he was being colorful--as with his juxtaposed statistical ode to a Biblical injunction. Whatever the cause, forgive him, as he neither drove nor had children. And moreover, it's hard to write everything there is to be written in a column with clear-headed brilliance everyday in thundering hot-as-hell July North Carolina heat, after awl.
But fans help. So, oh by the way, that stuff about the Heel of the Tarred variety? It may be indeed that it was born in cold blood at Gettysburg or in New Bern, as popular legends have it, or, just maybe--somethin' we've never seen printed anywhar, but somethin' we kind o' thought about one deep night once upon a time, that that ol' Tar Heel may have just had its arrrigins down thar rite thar on the map, ye see. 'Cause if ye Look at that map and See, ye might just see why it is that that olde Pilgrim's foot apparel, what with all that thar Tar down yonder--whar some o' this hyar site was borned, birthed, conceived, and originally planted, but upawn arrival in this hyar world, was directly re-moved, tarnation, 'bout as like as five year into it, by forces beyond our controll, what us bein' of a tender age and all--well, ye never know but what that Olde Tar Heel had its arrigins right thar, See? Well, home is home, and down yonder in that thar Heel is a whole lot o' Tar, by gosh. (It will cause us borned down yonder to be of the type that will stick to it, alright. Even in the Four Corners of the Great Globe itsef.) And there, too, a whole lot o' sand--and if you was to tawk to a University geo-log-ist, why, by golly, ye never know jus what ye might find to replace all that tobaccy--nawt to mention those ol' darned smelly Hawgs. Get it? And this is the 21st Century--leastwise by Pope Gregory's Calendar, but ye never know. 'Cause ye see sometimes down yonder some of 'em who was jus too lazy to lurnt to read, why thems seeks sometimes to Rob a son and maybe, sometimes, a son's father.
Walk to Texas
The Vice-President Turns His Back On No. 2 Job
From the Associated Press dispatches we cull the following:
WASHINGTON -- Vice-President Garner, foe of a third term for Franklin Roosevelt, packed away some office belongings today, expressed his private views to a few Senatorial cronies and, friends said, made ready to quit the Capital. His friends said that Garner plans to go to his Uvalde, Texas, home to vote in the primary elections on July 27, and might stay there, leaving Congress, the Administration and Democratic Party to their own devices.
Which seems pretty good ground for the nation to congratulate itself that at least the Democratic Party didn't nominate Cactus Jack Garner for the Presidency.
He is still, mind you, Vice-President of the United States and will be until January, 1941. More than that the nation is in a crisis--a crisis of foreign relations which dwarfs all domestic concerns. Matters of the first importance are daily brought before the Congress for decision. And the Vice-President has important functions to perform; if nothing else, in the use of his influence to line up the Senate for what needs to be done.
But Mr. Garner is peeved about the nomination of Mr. Roosevelt for a third term--about the defeat of his own hopes to be named for the Presidency or at least for the Vice-Presidency again. So he is going home to exhibit loyalty to the Democratic Party in his state. And for the rest--to sulk.
It is a pretty good measure of the man. What he obviously cares most about is a job for itself and service to his local political clique. As for the nation, which has greatly honored and rewarded him, apparently he concludes that he owes it nothing.
Small World
You Don't Need To Go to Bali To See These Things
Travelers seem to labor incurably under the notion that foreign countries are "quaint" and full of quite unparalleled practices.
Take George Koch, for instance. Young Mr. Koch, professor's son, hails from Chapel Hill. At present he is in charge of the Eastman Kodak laboratory at the New York World's Fair. And last week he was back visiting in Chapel Hill and telling his friends about his visit last Winter in Bali, in the East Indies.
Among other things he told his friends in Chapel Hill, as reported by Joseph Jones of the Chapel Hill Weekly, of waiting along a road until a truck loaded with Balinese appeared. He hailed them for a ride.
"The East Indians," said Mr. Koch, "always gesticulate and jabber interminably whenever there's any sort of decision to be made, and when the truck pulled up out jumped the driver and some of the passengers and began a pow-wow there in the middle of the road. While they were thus engaged I loaded my baggage and climbed aboard. Since I had made the decision for them, they left off their palaver and got back in the truck, and soon we were marching along with two or three horns going full blast. The native drivers love to blow horns and … they blow almost constantly, whether or not there is any need for it..."
Of course his description of Balinese before a decision is also a perfect description of Democrats before a decision. And the thing he did to them and the way they took it is only the exact double of which Franklin Roosevelt has just done to the Democrats and the way they took it.
As for the quaint horn-blowing Bali natives, let Mr. Koch come to Charlotte and we'll show him that the same trait is common to all persons of color who drive automobiles. "Watch out, boy. Here comes a corner. Blow that there horn!"
Still Young
Tar Heels Hold Fast To a Biblical Injunction
North Carolina is still plainly in no danger of becoming an "old" state. The dictators throw the terms "young nation" and "old nation" around often these days. But they have meaning only in terms of what is called the demographic rate. That forbidding phrase simply means the rate of births as against deaths and the prevailing level of population.
If the birth rate is high enough to keep the population constantly increasing, the nation or state is called "young." If it is low enough for the population to be decreasing, the nation or state is called "old."
The United States generally is said to be approaching the time when its population will become stationary. But not North Carolina. Its birth rate has fallen since 1923 when the birth rate was 30.4 for each 1,000 population. In 1938 it was 22.9 for each 1,000. But that compares with a national average of 17.6 per 1,000. And the state's population has grown from 3,065,932 in 1929 to 3,492,000 in 1938. The birth rate is well over twice the death, which is 9.6 per thousand.
Only four states, New Mexico, Mississippi, Arizona and Utah, have higher birth rates than North Carolina, though Idaho and Louisiana have exactly the same rate as our own. New Jersey has the lowest rate--12.9 per thousand.
Countries and regions with high birth rates have the advantage in potential human resources. But they also have greater proportionate costs for education. And in these times they are apt to be more afflicted with unemployment problems. But, willy-nilly, North Carolina seems destined to remain a state with a growing population for a good while to come.
Cat's Paw
Spanish Row With Chile Is a Nazi-Fascist Move
The role which Spain is playing in South America is of course merely that of cat's paw for the Axis.
The reason given for breaking off relations with Chile is entirely inadequate under any interpretation of international law. It was simply that Chile had been giving refuge to "Red elements who fled from Spain." That is to say, they were Spanish Loyalists. Some of the Spanish Loyalists were and are Communists. Others were and are anarchists. But others were merely republicans of one sort or another.
In any case, all of them were political refugees who stood to be murdered by the Franco regime if they remained in Spain. And it has always been the rule that any country is entitled to afford haven to political refugees if it chooses, without being in anywise guilty of affront to or offense against the country from which they came.
To understand the case of Chile, we have to recall that it was not long ago that it put down the most active Nazi revolt yet to develop in South America, and that since then the Leftist Government has been very energetic in suppressing further Nazi activities. This, and the fact that the refugees from Spain were naturally adding new strength to the government, is undoubtedly the real immediate reason for the break.
But it may well have in it the purpose to stir up active Nazi-Fascist revolt in the country. Spain is looked to as mother country of the population of Chile, as by all the other Spanish-speaking Latin-American countries. And strong loyalty and devotion extends to the masses who are ordinarily more or less indifferent to politics--especially by the link of religion. And if the Nazi-Fascist leaders can persuade the people of Chile that the government is selling out the Spanish tradition, culture, and Church in favor of Communism, atheism, and cooperation with the United States (often hated)--well, that, of course, is standard Nazi-Fascist technique. And it has generally been successful elsewhere.
Framed Edition
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