The Charlotte News

Sunday, January 7, 1940

THREE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: And, in the spirit of "Busy Day", we will just be content for purposes of comment on this day's entries, to say: Madam Speaker, we desire unanimous consent to extend our remarks into the Record.

There are two additional editorials on this day's page, but we did not obtain them several years ago when we happened to obtain this date's copy and so, as yet, we have not acquired the other two. Later, we shall.

Also, Cash probably provided this date, albeit also incomplete on the microfilm, a piece on the book-page titled, "Predictions for the New Year".

Incidentally, after reading "Wrong Foot", we believe that the new Congress ought commandeer some defense factories and implement our proposal to convert them to ballot-machine production. (If, then, in 2008, your polling place sports a ballot machine with a cover bearing some fading yellow and black Tiger print, saying, "▲Warning: Extremely Radioactive▲", you will know that the magic is beginning to work--or wear off, as the case may be.)

Some advice to the Administration: When, because the field-day secretary, with files on parade, in charge of contest entries there, misunderstood and entered you involuntarily into a three-legged foot race, when all along you intended to enter the sprint contest, undoubtedly, then the best thing probably to do to avoid further embarrassment, it seems to us, is simply and unceremoniously,--just as one, when discovering the fly swatter to be in the cool of the mackereled evening indecorously, after the pressed studs on the jerkin are discovered at odds and acutely loose, one quickly pulls the angle together--, simply therefore, to cut the binding from off the middle legs, touching the third rail, and move on.

That is, end the War.

Allied Aid For Finland Could Save Her

The Finns are reported as being confident that, with the destruction of the Red Army's 163rd Division, they have won the war for the duration of the Winter. Even though Russia is massing seven divisions on the Karelian front, she is not expected to begin serious attack with weather conditions what they are now.

It is entirely possible, indeed, that it may be Summer before the Russians will be in position to settle down to business again. For the Finnish Springs are long, cold and exceedingly wet and muddy.

Even so, the jig promises to be up with the Finns before next Fall unless they can secure large scale aid from the Allies. For, however gallantly they fight, they cannot be expected long to stand against the odds arrayed against them, once the weather ceases to fight on their side.

Will they get the needed aid from the Allies? It seems doubtful. Supplies, bombers, guns, ammunition, all these they will get in more or less great quantity, no doubt, plus some considerable numbers of "volunteers." But these will not be enough.

And when it comes to wholesale aid for them, the Allies are on a spot. The prospect of making Finland a base for cutting into Russia and striking through the Polish back door is a very tempting one. But the joker in the equation is that under such circumstances, Nazi Germany is certain to intervene and attack Finland directly. And--Nazi Germany can make her attack very effective through the use of her overwhelming naval power in the Baltic. The Allies, for their part, are unlikely to penetrate into the sea. And so the result would likely be that Nazi Germany would simply transform Finland into a Nazi base.

Site Ed. Note: Charles Edison, (not Maxwell), was acting Secretary of the Navy from January 2, following the death of Secretary Claude Swanson, until June 24, when Republican Frank Knox was appointed to the post by FDR, a Democrat. Mr. Edison, of a Republican family, son of Tom,--the lightbulb man of Orange with the better ideas--, then ran successfully for Governor of New Jersey in 1940 as a Democrat, opposing Boss Hague's political machine.

Later, in the 1950's, however, he became friends with Herbert Hoover, a Republican, while both resided at the Waldorf-Astoria, and then in 1962 helped to form the New York Conservative Party, which inveighed against the Rockefeller-Lindsey brand of Republicanism as being far too liberal. The first major successful candidate under the Conservative Party banner was James Buckley, elected to the Senate in 1970, having lost in 1968 to Jacob Javits, a liberal Republican. In 1970, he was able to beat anti-war, liberal Republican incumbent Charles Goodell, appointed by Governor Rockefeller to the seat in September, 1968, to fill the unexpired term of a Democrat.

Mr. Edison passed away July 31, 1969.

Just a few days earlier, man had first set foot on the silvery lunar surface.

Incidentally, as acting-Secretary, he advocated the Iowa class of battleships, the last battleships to be built for the War. Because of the need for aircraft carriers instead of destroyers, those of the planned Montana class, advocated by Mr. Knox, a Republican, were never built; two of the planned four had been slated for construction in the Philadelphia Naval Yard. (Whether this notion subsequently gave rise to the myth of the "Philadelphia Experiment", that is the supposed naval exploration into the recesses of illusion re invisible ships (and shoes, and many other things), we don't know.) Anyway, the hammer on the Montana class came down.

A song, whether about all this or not, but fittingly appropriate to be here referenced, was recorded July 9-11, 1969.

Later, Ann Richards became Governor of Texas.

Ourselves, as Lord Gort is awaiting us, must report to headquarters, located within the Hand, lest some real trouble starts, this known as the Hgagau phenomenon, (abbreviated: argentumaurumhydrargyrum).

Senator Minton Takes Up An Indefensible Position

Senator Minton is off on the wrong foot. And a peculiarly wrong foot, at that, for a man who has set up in season and out to be a great champion of the "masses." It is against Secretary Edison's proposal that the navy be empowered to commandeer factories for naval production during war times, on the ground that it,

Of course it does. But war inevitably means the suspension of democracy. It did in the last war. It meant it to the point that even men's right to their own bodies was done away with. Nobody bothered to ask the potential soldier whether he wished to exercise his "inalienable" right to dispose of his own person by joining the army or not joining it. The Government simply reached out and got him, gave him a gun, and informed him that he was going away to France to fight whether he liked it or not. Thousands of men lost their lives in the process--were killed on battlefields regardless of what they themselves desired. And, as everyone knows, the draft for the next war is already drawn in Washington--will go far beyond the last one and set up to tell each of us what we shall do.

And in view of that--. This is no argument for the Edison plan. About that we wouldn't know. It may well be that it would defeat its own purpose, throw such a scare into industry as to paralyze it. But the argument against it must be cast on purely practical grounds, not on the ground that it violates democracy.

When men are being drafted to die, it is foolish to say that property cannot also be drafted. For that would be to say that the right of property is greater than the right of a man to his own life--a position which is obviously indefensible and which, with the country in a war temper, would be apt to be exceedingly dangerous.

The House, Unlike Senate, Sticks Close To Its Job

Last Wednesday the Senate met, heard the President's message, adjourned. The House, however, stuck around for a while. And what important business were they engaged upon, these statesmen who draw 10,000 smackers per annum, in addition to clerk hire and mileage? It is interesting to turn to the Congressional Record and observe:

Mr. Fulmer: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to extend my own remarks in the Appendix of the Record...

Mr. Nelson: Mr. Speaker, I desire to submit to unanimous consent requests.... I desire to extend my own remarks in the Record.

Mr. Ludlow: Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to extend my own remarks in the Record...

[Remainder of editorial presently unavailable.]