The Charlotte News

Thursday, October 28, 1937

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: We trow that these four pieces were likely by Cash, and so we include them separately from the remainder of the page of this date.

Mr. Swarhoozey-Heeward had a plan to which no one could find it credible enough to subscribe--true philanthropy.

Dr. Schacht, as we have noted before, was the operative Reich brains behind the Mexican-German oil trade scheme cooked up by William Rhodes Davis to dispose of the March, 1938 expropriation of oil properties from U. S. and British companies, who then boycotted Mexican oil, leaving the market for Germany and Italy, until the invasion of Poland brought on the British blockade, leaving open only the substantially longer and more complicated and costly western route via Japanese marus to Vladivostok and then along the Trans-Siberian railway, until that, too, was shut off by the June 22, 1941 invasion by Hitler of Russia, with Germany then down to about six to nine months' supply of oil, then faltering in a presumed easy ride through the Soviet frontier to Moscow against a tenacious citizen-led defense and early October freezing rains and snow, leaving only a last gasp for the Triplice to re-supply itself, in the Pacific.

This first piece is more interesting with the passage of time than its casual manner implies, as it was from Baltimore that Cash obtained his first substantial publication, and it was Ecclesiastes which he asked his wife to read, as he fell asleep "listening to the mighty rhythms", as Mary recounted, on the last night of his life, 44 months later.

There is a lot of sorrow in Baltimore just now.

For instance there's Mr. Ray Sweezey, alias Mr. Ray Harwood, of Greenburg, Indiana--Mr. Sweezey-Harwood, the philanthropist. Mr. Harwood-Sweezey is a man of large heart, and having arrived in Baltimore with some $551 of his "Uncle George's" cash, somewhat dubiously come by, and having looked in on some of Baltimore's bars, Mr. Swoozey-Harweedy was struck with a great notion. To show his love for humanity at large and his admiration for Baltimoreans in particular, Mr. Hoody-Swarweezey planted himself in front of a Baltimore Street hotel and proceeded to offer "Uncle George's" $10 bills for the nominal sum of $2. That eventually got Mr. Heezey-Swarwoody in jail, where at this writing he still remains.

But the saddest people in Baltimore are, not Mr. Sweedy-Harwoozie but the wise guys They looked at Heedy-Swarwoozie's amiable face and sneered. They laughed out loud and hugged themselves when they saw a sucker or two stop and buy a bill. They knew better than that. Ha! they knew better than that! And then--the Baltimore papers reported that Mr. Swarz-Hooweedie's money was perfectly good money, his proposition on the up and up.

Long ago the Preacher said it:

"In much wisdom is much grief."

Preachers who come to town to hold protracted meetings produce some of the most startling statistics imaginable. This Spring one of them, stating flatly that John L. Lewis was being manipulated from Russia and that CIO was being financed by Soviet gold, came forth with the old favorite statistic that there were twice as many Communists in the U.S. as in Russia. Not that all this mayn't have been true, but how did the preacher know? How does anybody know? By the very secretive nature of Soviet transactions, they would be dev'lishly hard to document. By the very hazard of being a Communist in America, it would be impossible to count noses.

And now another preacher comes forward with another statistic: that the records of a certain unnamed co-educational college showed that "97 per cent of the male and female students had broken the Seventh Commandment" not to commit adultery. The records showed... It is incredible. Such matters are not recorded. Morality among male and female college students may have come to this, but enough reticence still remains, we trow, to prevent the taking of a census on personal indulgences and indiscretions.

Unlike gift horses, statistics should always be looked in the mouth.

Can a country which didn't have bread enough to go around last winter and which promises to have still less this winter--can such a country go on indefinitely spending billions for arms designed for conquest, for the dubious end of autarchy (that is, complete independence of the rest of the world), for immense buildings and empty theaters to the glory of the Nazi Party, and for motor speedways,--for all that National Socialism means by glory--without ending in collapse?

Dr. Hajalmer Schacht didn't think so. But Das Hermann (Colonel-General Goering) hadn't a doubt of it. And so Dr. Schacht is no longer Economics Minister for Germany. It was Dr. Schacht, indeed, who, by his wily manipulation of the German currency and his dizzying system of barter, had been making the German economy work after some fashion in the teeth and the opinion of most of the world's economic experts that it couldn't possibly work and the lack of the shiny stuff to make it work. And so it seems that Dr. Schacht might have been listened to when he said that glory would have to be trimmed down or that bread would have to be trimmed still further or that ruin would come. But Das Hermann didn't think so. Das Hermann was sure that the loyal, happy German people preferred glory to bread, and that anyhow, with the army of half one million minions organized under his Four Year Plan, he'd show up Dr. Schacht for a timid old woman.

We shall see now whether Das Hermann is really a magician or only silly in the head.

The Third Republic of France came into being as a mere stop-gap concession to the masses. It came into existence then only as the result of the demand of "Henri V" for the adoption of the old white flag of the Bourbons, at the very sight of which, as the Duc de Broglie said, the guns of the army would have gone off by themselves. It came into existence under the tutelage of its enemies, and remained pretty much in their hands down until 1911 when the Socialist leaders, Clemenceau and Poincare, came to power-- was for thrity-five years continually on the brink of being overthrown in favor of a royal regime.

But since 1911 we have grown accustomed to the idea that it is one of the most solidly established republican-democratic regimes in the world. There is evidence enough, however, that its existence is still precarious. As witness the confession of Andre Tardieu that in 1932, when he was serving as premier, he actually used government funds to subsidize Col. Francois de la Rocque, Fascist chieftain who openly proposes the destruction of the Republic! It is an astounding admission, and one that in most countries would automatically bring on a trial for treason. But not in France. The forces of that country are too dangerously poised to risk such a stirring up of passions that lie always just under the surface.