The Charlotte News

Monday, February 27, 1939

FIVE EDITORIALS

As we indicated previously, supposedly, or so Cash told the Knopfs, he anticipated the latter half of the month of February off to finish up the book. It appears not to have worked out that way. While clearly more than usual of the editorials in February are suspect as being from a hand other than Cash, most clearly continued to be by him. It is probable that our previous guess was correct, that he may have laid up a store of editorials and they were printed sporadically, or at least he contributed substantially fewer editorials than usual, if regularly. Nevertheless, while he may well have had reduced chores at the newspaper for a significant portion of the month, it did not result in the completion of the book as promised. Wait the Knopfs would for yet another 17 months, and despite an upcoming meeting in Greensboro in April to encourage him further to get along with it, for the fall book lists. The South can be by turns an elusive and recalcitrant and even nasty suitor with which to deal, especially when coming due for analysis by a thinker. No sooner than one is done with the analysis, it will turn around and bite the thinker right in the head again, just to prove its still occasional rebellious nature.

Then again, as we also pointed out earlier in the month, fully ten dates are missing from the microfilm for the month, more than in any other during Cash's tenure at The News--February 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14, 18, 19, 25 and 26, which includes each of the Sunday editions and thus the book-page and possible other Cash contributions thereto, as well. So it may be that there were more than are presently available from Cash.

Yet again, maybe his complaint in January about the wage and hours law's limitations, which he said caused him to work one day less per week, provides the explanation for it all--including the delay on the book. When all else fails, blame it on the Government...

And we would be remiss, we suppose, were we to fail to mention this odd little thing: On the seventh day of Christmas last, in conjunction with the note associated with the third day, December 27, 1938, we whimsically made mention of our New Year's decision "to hang Chester", which, we said, we did. But he came back anyway. Why we said that, we couldn't say. Just a little whimsical poetry of life, perhaps. We were only kidding in any literal sense, of course. We always liked Chester when as a child we practiced drawing in the shadow of Marshal Dillon every Saturday night--sometimes from a room in Shelby, N.C., out the window of which one could see all the way to the Hoey mansion, with a little strain through the peach trees, if we recall correctly.

We always said, "Chester, when you gonna get Doc to fix that leg o' yours up?"

Once as a child, in 1960, someone who liked to kid us occasionally, taking some advantage of our known credulous state of the time, swore to us that they had hung Chester and that it would be in the next episode. We were sorely distressed. We never saw that episode.

Then, today, two months later, we hear that the actor who portrayed Chester passed away at age 81.

So to Mr. Weaver, we wish you well on your journey out of Dodge, to that next great new horizon. You were a fine actor, whether as Chester or Dr. Mudd or the man being dueled by the mad trucker, or else--and there is always place for that in the hectic hurdy-gurdy of this apace world in which we strive for consciousness and understanding of that which goes on by us in time in the theater of life.

That is both a necessary and a timely traffic safety campaign the Police Department is putting on at the suggestion and under the sponsorship of this newspaper. The death of those two bright and handsome young boys, followed by the injury of the two girls, put a heavy weight of sympathy and alarm on the hearts of all parents in the community.

Most parents, even those who work on a spare-the-rod theory, will cheerfully wear their children out, as the familiar phrase goes, for carelessness in crossing streets or taking chances with the unpredictable traffic that congests them.

The assistance of the Police Department in impressing caution upon these impulsive youngsters should have a salutary effect. But sometimes we think that the wearing-out process ought not to be restricted to children alone. A good many automobilists would be helped wonderfully by it. Yesterday afternoon, in fact, we saw two cars loaded with young people, hardly more than children themselves, who we guarantee would have been helped wonderfully by a little judicious application of (1) a rod for the girls and (2) a cat-o'-nine-tails for the boys.

Children, like most pedestrians, have developed a sort of sixth sense which governs them except in those moments when, in the excitement of a game or something, they forget. But automobilists give no appearance of having evolutionized at all. Instead of having developed a new sense, many of them seem to have lost what little sense they may once have had. This especially we commend to the notice of the Police Department.

In those two handsome buildings down East Trade way, they differ in their attitudes toward past due taxes. The City, politely but firmly, demands payment, and occasionally takes steps to show that it means business. The County simply sits back and hopes that the taxpayers won't get too far behind.

Which method works the better may be found out in a jiffy. The City's tax bills run several hundred thousands of dollars annually more than the County's, about $1,700,000 this year as against the County's $1,273,000. In prior years, before Social Security fell to the County's lot and caused the tax rate to shoot up, the difference was even greater. In 1935-36, for example, as much as $600,000. Even so, the City has only a few thousand dollars more than the County in past due accounts, including those for the current tax year, as this table (as of February 1, 1939) graphically shows:

Eliminating taxes due for 1938, which are hardly delinquent as yet, the City, in spite of its greater levies, actually has less in past due accounts than the County. Both have too much, but it is plain to see that the City has found a better way to deal with delinquents. Certainly it is more considerate of the people to pay their taxes when due, and perhaps it may be more considerate of the delinquents in that it keeps them from getting too far behind.

Anybody who expects great reforms and economies to be brought about through reorganization of the Federal Government is in for a sore disappointment. The "consolidation, reduction or abolition of Federal agencies and functions" sounds fine, but enough is known of the character of the Administration and other politicians in general to justify a skeptical attitude towards the whole undertaking.

But reorganization, all the same, is badly needed. The Federal establishment has grown throughout the years, in particular throughout the last few years, to the point where it is a sprawling, helter-skelter [indiscernible words] establishment is bursting the bounds of the District of Columbia, running over into Maryland and Pennsylvania. The cost of its maintenance is both extravagant and wantonly unnecessary.

Every President since William McKinley, a list which includes three Republicans and two Democrats, has proposed that this hodge-podge of agencies, bureaus and commissions be re-examined, revised and rearranged. This is strictly Executive function, requiring, however, Congressional permission either by delegating to the Executive authority to undertake it on its own initiative or to propose to Congress what shall be done, subject to the approval of that body. The latter procedure is set forth in the Warren reorganization plan, and by all means should be adopted. It can do no harm. It may do some good.