The Charlotte News

Thursday, February 19, 1942

FOUR EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: "Saving That Man" speaks to the urgency with which General MacArthur needed to be ordered to leave his encampment on Corregidor as the Japanese moved in to take the Bataan Peninsula to his immediate north. The editorial counsels the President to order his evacuation immediately as he would otherwise stay until he was captured or killed.

Indeed, within days, MacArthur would be ordered by FDR to leave Corregidor and remove to Melbourne via PT boat. Initially, he would declare his intent to resign his rank and become an ordinary foot soldier with the Filipinos and hold out to the end. He was convinced instead, however, to depart for the good of the Allied operations at large in the Pacific--and to avoid, as the piece suggests, the ensuing Japanese propaganda were he to be captured or killed.

"In Sight" tells of the freezing of rubber for retreads and the consequent potential that for the duration of the war--three or four years, the piece accurately guesses, maybe as much as five or ten years, it ventures further--the only way to acquire replacement tires for the passenger car would be to buy them from a hoarder or steal them, the former illegal, the latter not only that but incurring the risk of being shot in the process

"Hey, yeah, you. Over here. I got just what you been looking for. Right in here, yeah, over there in the back. Go on. Go on back there. Just a little further.

"Yeah, I know it's dark. The G-men, you know. They keep an eye on this place all the time. Lots of foot traffic has attracted somebody's attention. You know, we got some sort of stoolie out there. Always causin' problems for the little guy

"Over here. Right there. Pretty as a picture, no?

"Yeah, yeah, that's right. No, don't get sentimental over it. Come on. I don't like seein' a grown man cry.

"Four Goodriches with at least five thousand miles of tread still on 'em. What say, it bein' Washington's birthday and all like that, we do this for five hundred dollars right now? Right here and now, cash on the barrelhead. Come on.

"No, I know. The Plymouth you got cost you just a couple a hundred more new. But that was two years ago, Mack. Times have changed. I'll tell you what, kid on the way and all that, I'll throw in you a spare for another, say, seventy-five bucks. Eh, just for you, make it sixty.

"How? You just come back at midnight, roll up on the door out there and honk three times, real quick like, honk-honk-honk, like that, see. We'll roll you in, and change you out right here, quick as a button. We have a bucket of mud too to make it all look real good, so's nobody notices--you know? We don't miss a trick here with those-a G-men snoopin' about out there all the time.

"Got to think about it, 'ey? Well, don't think too long, Mack. These little gems won't last forever, you know?

"Tell you what, I'll throw in a pair of nice rubber-soled shoes, just slightly used, and a nice black rubber coat, all for free. Just for bein' a nice guy and all.

"Huh? You want ones for the whole family? What are you, nuts? You got to pay me another twenty-five, maybe thirty bucks for those, depending on quality. What do you think, these things grow on trees out here?"