The Charlotte News

Friday, March 24, 1939

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Having provided the other, we provide the reply.

Good 'ay.

British To Core--That's Australia, Says Native

Dear Sir:

As an Australian I read with interest a recently published letter to you from one signing himself "U. S. Marine." The writer makes reference to the accent of a "Mr. Desmond Ahern" and leads on to a number of observations as to Australia itself.

"A Mr. Desmond Ahern" being myself, I cannot take up the matter of my accent, and only regret if in the matter of accent I am not a true Australian in all else I am. And as a true Australian I feel compelled to take up with some annoyance, the remarks by "U. S. Marine" about my country.

Firstly, as to the Australian accent in general--there is no similarity of accent in any class of the Australian people and the equivalent classes in the United States, nor are any of the American "slang" expressions (so generally substituted in ordinary conversation in this country in place of the King's English which is used and still preferred by the Australian people) in use in Australia, in spite of the number of American films seen there.

Secondly as to secession--neither now nor at any time in the past has there ever been the suggestion of a desire in any section of the Australian community to secede from Great Britain. Nor at any time has there ever a thought or desire to join ourselves with the United States of America. There is no especial feeling for the United States in Australia other than a courteous feeling of good-will, as is befitting between two great English-speaking countries which have little, if any, close association as yet.

To support the anti-secession viewpoint I have only to point out that in the recent European crisis of September last, the Commonwealth of Australia gave unhesitant support (unqualified too) to all that the British Government and Mr. Chamberlain thought fit to decide upon. The Australian people are fully cognizant of the fact that their country's greatest asset is its membership of the Empire, and that its very future depends upon its bearing now a share of the responsibilities that have befallen Great Britain in its handling of a very difficult situation in Europe.

In conclusion let it be realized by the people of America that Australia is at this moment definitely desirous of knowing intimately and working in complete harmony and understanding with the United States of America as befits two great English-speaking countries--two countries who may yet be the important factors in any defense of the Pacific for the benefit of Western civilization. Australia knows something of the United States, but this country has as yet shown little interest or good-will in the matter of discovering Australia, except as a market for certain products that have literally sold themselves by suitability. Good-will does not grow out of such a one-sided bargain. Whatever gestures be made by this country to Australia, and however well they may be received, let no one in any part of the world suppose that the Commonwealth of Australia is anything but British, proudly so, loyally so, and ever desirous of remaining so.

D. J. AHERN.

St. Louis, Mo.

On Our Time

H. L. Mencken in American Mercury

There are now only two classes of men in the United States: those who work for their livings, and those who vote for them.

***

The war on privilege will never end. Its next great campaign will be against the special privileges of the underprivileged.

***

It takes only one drop of Oleum tiglii to turn a respectable hooker of rye into a Mickey Finn. It takes only one Communist to ruin a labor union.

***

Government is the most impudent and aggressive of all natural monopolies. It is a public service company ten times as extortionate as any other public service company.

Fine Weather, Wasn't It?

From San Francisco to Savannah and all-way points in the 24 hours ending at 7:30 yesterday morning, it hadn't rained a drap. The Weather Bureau's table of precipitation was one unvarying succession of .00s relieved by not a single fraction of wetness.

How unusual the occurrence was, we are not familiar enough with meteorological phenomena to say. But it appears to have been a fine day everywhere, mates, almost as good in such small towns as Greensboro as it was here in the metropolis of the Carolinas. But, as usual, in spite of the fact that less than a hundred miles separates the two points, the minimum thermometer reading in Greensboro was considerably below that in Charlotte. Nine degrees, to be exact. But still a pretty fine day all over.

Speaking of Continuances*

Although the docket listed 172 cases, some of them years old and continued over and over again, criminal proceedings in Superior Court Thursday slowed down to a crawl. Some of the defendants simply failed to appear when their cases were called, and the attorneys of others reported that their clients had been granted continuances by Solicitor Carpenter, who wasn't on hand.

Judge Armstrong had a rule ready for that excuse. "Hereafter," he said, "there will be no out-of-court continuances. All continuances will be granted only in open court and then only for good reasons."

Judge Armstrong can speak, of course, only for such part of hereafter as finds him holding court in Mecklenburg. In a short time, under the State's system of rotating judges, his place will be taken by another who will be unaware of the old Mecklenburg custom of continuing cases until witnesses have moved away and the original crime has been almost forgotten. And in any case, we will take a small bet that neither in this session of criminal court nor the next nor the next after that will the Solicitor call up for trial Case No. 160, concerning a lottery charge and dating back to nobody knows when; or Cases No. 333, 1682 and 1683, all three involving the identical defendant on two charges of embezzlement and one of drunken driving, and dating back in the first instance to February, 1935, four years ago.

Vindicator Principles

"The American Vindicator," official organ of the Hon. Robert Rice Reynolds' patriotic association, is out in Washington. And we are constrained to park our impulse to poke fun at it. The thing is simply too vicious to be a laughing matter. It presents as the slogan of the outfit the old one of "Don't Tread On Me," announces that it is out to "Save America For Americans," and lists five "principles." And of these four are: (1) register and fingerprint aliens; (2) stop all immigration; (3) deport all alien criminals and undesirables; and (4) banish all foreign isms.

Draw all that together and you have a program which really proposes in the name of "Americanism" to, (1) blame the aliens for all our woes, and (2) to abolish the basic American right of free speech and free opinion. Which is to say--well, it has often been observed that when Fascism comes to the United States it will come disguised as "Americanism." The attempt to blame aliens for unemployment and other evils in this country is exactly all of a piece with Adolf Hitler's attempt to blame the Jews for the woes of Germany, and represents an appeal to the lowest and most contemptible element in human nature--the will to evade responsibility by finding a scapegoat. And as to the proposal to shut up isms--which is to say somebody you don't agree with--it is of course the very essence of Fascism.

What this country needs is no movement to "Save America for Americans" but one to "Save America from Americans." From the kind of Americans, Right, Center, and Left, who believe that a happy nation can be built on a philosophy of hate and the principle of grabbing the lion's share for one's own gang, and hang the rest! From these, and the sort of Americans who play upon stupid mass emotion with falsehood in order to grab power for themselves.

To The Bomb Cellars, Quick!

That Man Hitler Is Playing The Suckers With His Promises To Be Good Again

Said Lord Hitler yesterday at Memel:

"We Germans have no intention of doing harm to the rest of the world.

"The damage which that other world did to Germany, however, had to be repaired again.

"I believe that now, in the main, we have arrived at an end to this unique process of reparation."

Is that reasonably to be taken as a declaration in good faith that now he is satisfied and is going to stay at home and mind his own business hereafter? Or is it an attempt to lull the suckers into somnolence again, while he digests his latest conquest and gets his ducks in a row for bigger and better hunting? You might guess which answer is the more probable from the dishonesty inherent in the claim that all his deeds have been by way of repairing the damage done to Germany by the Allied powers in the war. For Bohemia and Moravia have never belonged to Germany at any time in history until he seized them the other day.

But the answer is written clearly and certainly in the record of his own promises for the last five years. Thus:

Speaking to the Reichstag Jan. 30, 1934 on the subject of the return of the Saar from France:

"After the solution of this question, the German Government is willing and determined to accept in its innermost soul, as well as exterior formulation, the Pact of Locarno." (Voluntarily signed by Germany in 1925 and binding her to consult with the other European powers on all questions of change of boundaries.)

Speaking after the occupation of the Rhineland in 1936:

"I have removed the question of the everlasting European revisions of frontiers from the atmosphere of public discussion in Germany... We have no territorial demands to make in Europe."

Speaking on the eve of his occupation of Austria March 12, 1938:

"Germany has neither the wish nor the intention to mix in internal Austrian affairs, or to annex or unite with Austria."

Speaking immediately after it occupied and annexed Austria:

"The eternal dream of the German people has been fulfilled... Germany wants only peace. She does not want to add to the sorrow of other nations."

Speaking at the Sportspalast in Berlin Sept. 26, 1938, on the occasion of his final demand for the cession of the Sudetenland, under penalty of war, on the eve of Munich, and less than six months before his annexation of Bohemia, Moravia and Memel in the last two weeks:

"The Sudetenland is the last territorial demand I have to make in Europe...

"I assured him (Chamberlain, at Berchtesgaden and Godesburg) that when the Czechoslovaks had peacefully settled their difficulties with other nationalities, Czechoslovakia no longer interested me...

"I further assured him, and I repeat here, that if this problem (the Sudetenland problem) is solved there will be no further territorial problem in Europe for Germany. And I further assured him that at the moment that Czechoslovakia has solved the other problems (those of the demands of Hungary and Poland), this is when the Czechoslovak state no longer interests me, and that, if you please, I give him the guaranty: we do not want any Czechs any more..."

Man Washes His Hands

Whether Governor Eccles of the Reserve Board is shrewdly getting out from under the deluge or taunting Congress with a challenge he knows it hasn't the nerve to accept, the country is on a hot spot with its spending, whatever happens.

But he made a major admission when he said the majority of business leaders were convinced that the government's expenditures "compete with and discourage private investment in existing and in new enterprise." The belief is equivalent to the fact. And this, as Mr. Eccles probably knows, is not the only complaint business leaders have against the Administration.

The magazine Fortune recently got together eleven active, well-informed men, representative of many pursuits and interests, and set them to talking around a table. They talked all afternoon and far into the night, and they kept it up the next morning. When they had finished, they came up with this majority bill of particulars:

That the fiscal policy of the Administration has brought with it a failure in business conference.

That the spirit of enterprise languishes largely because of the belief that the Administration does not really care about the system of private enterprise.

That the government should invest its money so as to increase productive opportunity (such as the Great Smokies Parkway, for example) rather than merely spend to create purchasing power, a process to which there is apparently no end.

These eleven men had the wit to see and the courage to proclaim that it was of secondary importance which school, spenders or budget balancers, was right; that the first duty of everyone concerned was to find the least harmful escape from the vicious circle in which the country was caught. Mr. Eccles, however, was willing for the economizers to have their way, no matter what disastrous results it might produce, so long as it was they and not he who had to accept responsibility for the consequences.

 


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