The Charlotte News
Thursday, April 18, 1940
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: "And--the Japanese threat to the Dutch East
Indies, undoubtedly made in full collaboration with the Nazis and probably with
the Nazi promise that Japan may have these islands when the war is over,
effectually cancels out the possibility that the United States might come
actively to the rescue of the Allies.
"It promises to be no picnic upon which the bandit combine seems
about to embark, certainly. It is more than probable that the move in the south
will be combined with an attack on the Western Front, perhaps a swing through
Holland and Belgium. Indeed, the Dutch East Indies business suggests that
exactly the latter is coming."
While things would transpire at a good bit slower pace than Cash predicts
in this regard, that while the move on the Western Front, precisely through
Holland and Belgium into France, by the Nazi, would occur within the next few
weeks, the forecasted move south by the Japanese in collaboration with the Nazi
would await another time, six months after the blitz into Russia, after its
progress had stalled by the fortuitously combined forces of the early October
winter in 1941 and the fortitude of the Russian citizen-soldier behind the
sandbags of Stalingrad.
All to keep the machinery of war on the march and well-greased with plenty
of iron ore for steel, wheat for bread, tin and rubber from the East Indies,
and oil from both the latter and Rumania, as the shipments from Mexico of this
most precious commodity via the western route were fast drying up.
"Good Timing" displays in little Cash’s note of that whimsical
fay we name Serendipity, and lets us know that its recognized presence at The
News Tower long preceded our occasional encounter here with it as we
recapitulate these editorials for your consideration. (And for a little more on
Martin Burney, of whom the Lamb quote makes reference, see Lamb’s letter of August 14,
1814 to William Wordsworth, as Lamb praised the newly penned narrative poem,
“The Excursion”, the
manuscript of which Burney with, diamond-handed, had made haste away.)
Time flies; it
is his melancholy task,
To bring, and bear away, delusive
hopes,
And re-produce the troubles he
destroys.
But, while his blindness thus is
occupied,
Discerning Mortal! do thou serve the
will
Of Time's eternal Master, and that
peace,
Which the world wants, shall be for
thee confirmed!
On
The March
The Bandit Nations Have Chosen
Their Time Well
In itself the Italian uproar and naval maneuvers might mean simply that
Mussolini was trying to help Hitler and Norway by making the Allies feel that
they had to keep a very large naval force in the Mediterranean to watch him
instead of drawing off most of their ships to speed the northern decision.
But, when other developments are taken into account, it seems more
probable that the Nazis, the Italians and probably the Reds think that the time
is now opportune to put what look like well-laid plans into execution.
All the evidence suggests that the Balkans are the chosen ground for the
Nazi-Red-Italian attack. The Nazis and the Reds will jump Rumania at the same
time that Mussolini jumps Yugoslavia and Greece. Perhaps at the same time
Russia will strike Turkey overland. There is the bare possibility, of course,
that the Reds may not be active partners in the apparently approaching move,
and that their concentrations of troops over against Rumania may be intended to
forestall any attempt of the Nazis to continue on into the Ukraine. But to
suppose it is almost certainly willful thinking. However much thieves may hate
one another, they can usually get together when there is a prospect of booty
for all.
Perhaps Italy will also strike in French North Africa and Egypt at the
same time, and it is not impossible that she might attempt a lightning blow to
close Suez and the Straits of Gibraltar, with Franco perhaps co-operating with
the latter move from the Spanish side.
The time has been admirably chosen and the Nazi-Red-Musso cards have been
played with great skill. The British battle fleet is far away, 2,500 miles
northward from the Mediterranean, and must remain there willy-nilly until the
German hold on Norway is broken, if it can be. Else Britain will be at the mercy
of the Nazi bombers and will soon be hopelessly crippled. Mussolini has had
time to greatly strengthen his defenses against the French border. And--the
Japanese threat to the Dutch East Indies, undoubtedly made in full
collaboration with the Nazis and probably with the Nazi promise that Japan may
have these islands when the war is over, effectually cancels out the
possibility that the United States might come actively to the rescue of the
Allies.
It promises to be no picnic upon which the bandit combine seems about to
embark, certainly. It is more than probable that the move in the south will be
combined with an attack on the Western Front, perhaps a swing through Holland
and Belgium. Indeed, the Dutch East Indies business suggests that exactly the latter
is coming. If so, then the French will have no great armies to spare for Italy.
But even small French armies have always been able to whip the bandy-legged and
uncourageous race beyond the Alps at will, and Frenchmen promise to be in a
grim humor this time.
Turkey seems ready to hurl her armies into Rumania and Greece, and Turk
soldiers are as terrible as the most terrible Nazi ever dreamed of being. And
as for the talk about Italy's navy attempting to force the Dardanelles, that is
nonsense. The Italian navy couldn't do it in a thousand years even if it didn't
have the French-British fleets which still outweigh it to cope with. However,
if the Italians take Greece, they might achieve the same purpose by land--if
they got Nazi soldiers to aid. Or the Nazis might do it by approaching through
Bulgaria, which is already a Nazi stooge.
The British-French Mediterranean fleets are perhaps still large enough to
destroy the Italian fleet if they ever came up with it, but it will probably
take good care that they don't, preferring instead to cut off Allied commerce
through the sea and to harass British-Allied transport movements.
It all shows up the isolationist claim in this country, that the war is
only another imperialistic war, as incredible silliness. The new barbarian
hordes are solidly on the march, intent upon the destruction of civilization
and the carrying of their iron rule and their barbarian ideology around the
earth by the sword. But the isolationists need not worry about us getting
involved in Europe. If we have any regard for our own interests, we will now
quit dallying and throw all our economic power behind the Allies. But as for
military intervention, that is beyond our power. All we can do is watch Japan,
perhaps fight her, and pray heaven that the Allies can somehow win in Europe
and head off chaos for mankind, ourselves included.
Alas,
Poor York
It Knows Well Whence It Gets A
Hundred Grand In Taxes
The form of the liquor referendum to be held in South Carolina (under the
auspices of the Democratic Party) is certainly calculated to put the question
to the voters in a disagreeable way. It is to be all or nothing. If they want
to get rid of liquor, which runs 40-50 per cent alcohol, by George, they jolly
well have to get rid of wine and beer too, which run as low as four and five
per cent alcohol.
Not only that, the Legislature, in submitting the matter in the
Democratic primary, has asked the voters to indicate what kind of taxes they'd
like to take the place of liquor taxes provided a return to prohibition is
indicated. That provision is going to make a lot of people think twice.
The people of York County (York, Fort Mill, Rock Hill) in particular, we
would guess, for York, while it is the seventh county in population, was second
in liquor sales last fiscal year. And the people of York, whatever their liquor
sentiments, probably have no objection at all to the people of Mecklenburg
County in North Carolina voluntarily and cheerfully coming across the line to
pay something like $100,000 a year in taxes on York liquor sales.
Good
Timing
But Candor Compels Us To Admit It
Was Chance
The News editorial page yesterday set us to grinning over it as a marvel
of co-ordination. In column one appeared an editorial on Dave Clark calling on
Martin Dies to give the University of North Carolina a going over with a view
to convincing the country that the place is a hotbed of Communism. In columns
four, five, and six appeared a cartoon, by Fitzpatrick, "Yes, Mr. Dies,
I'm a Rhode Island Red." And at the extreme top of the page on the folio
line appeared a quote from Charles Lamb, "Martin, If Dirt Was Trumps, What
Hands You Would Hold!"
But in point of fact, none of the items was placed in the page with
reference to the others. The Lamb quotation was selected and sent to the
printer ten days ago, without any thought of Martin Dies.
The Fitzpatrick cartoon came in rotation. In point of fact, we did not
discover the co-ordination of the three items until we saw Wednesday's paper.
We are sadly tempted, all the same, to give our little readers to
understand that it was a psychic, if unconscious, feat--the celebrated
old "nose for news" at work. But, remembering the fate of Ananias, we
guess we'll have to admit that it was nothing but coincidence.
Red,
Eh?
This Is An Odd Doctrine To Come
From Russia
This editorial is not concerned one way or the other with the
Logan-Walters Bill.
What it is concerned with is a statement by the Hon. Gene Cox of Georgia,
made in the course of debate on the bill. Said the Hon. Gene of the SEC:
"That commission has the same philosophy
as most of these new agencies that have been set up in recent years whose
thinking is apparently rooted in the doctrines that emanate from Russia."
Which, to say the least, seems a bit far-fetched and extravagant. There
is room for argument about whether the SEC has sometimes made its rulings too
strict, though for recent years even that is dubious. But there is no room for
doubt at all as to what the fundamental philosophy behind the SEC is.
That commission was called into being as an answer to scoundrelism on a
huge scale under which the American people were systematically duped into
buying worthless securities in the 1920s. And its basic philosophy is quite
simply that the American people have the right to demand that firms engaged in
selling securities obey the rules of common honesty.
It is startling news that the Hon. Gene Cox thinks Russia has become the
home of that philosophy.