The Charlotte News
Saturday, March 26, 1938
FOUR EDITORIALS
Site Ed. Note: Suicide? Sounds in "Second Go Is Best" that Mr. Cash was fairly decisive on the subject. And as a poet named Robert once said, "Don't go mistakin' paradise for that home across the road."
As to "Potpourri", we doubt Cash wrote all of this editorial, but probably items "5" and "7" are his.
And we have a little Potpourri ourselves to impart, to clear the air:
Now, we must allow that the lady riding the elephant presented some awfully cute advertisements in which she was being awfully folksy and sweet. We can't deny it. She even dragged her husband in to rock with her in old folksy rocking chairs on the main street of Salisbury, her hometown and the home of Cheerwine. And we are sure that she and her husband do rock ado most days and evenings right down yonder a spell sure enough, because her husband looked so awfully comfortable doing that with those cameras and klieg lights all about.
Of course, the lady didn't say much about growing up in a fairly wealthy family there in Salisbury, that she attended Duke University Law School, or that she hasn't lived in North Carolina since Fidel Castro took over in Cuba.
But, with all that money she obviously had to spend on television commercials, and we understand she had plenty, she failed to say one word of substance about what type of legislation she would support or introduce if she were to become a United States Senator, at least none that is the least bit jammed in the memory, not even by jargonized phrases like "Homeland". She did mention repeatedly something about her "Plan", whatever that was. ("What dreadful dole is here"?) It was laid out at her website, she said. So no need to talk in public about it and mess up those nice rocking chair pictures with jabberwocky about things she might do in Washington. And since she has never before held an elective office, it might have been nice to know.
But, we guess we'll know--or not care--soon enough. We are left to assume that she will smile a lot, rock in rocking chairs with her husband, and then turn to him to ask what she should do. ("Bob, what should I do?") But we are sure this is a false conclusion born of television, undoubtedly. (We do find it a little difficult to understand though why the lady who ran and won the Senate seat from New York two years ago, a lady who speaks her mind quite well on the issues, quite independently of her husband, and did during her campaign, was branded a "carpetbagger" by many of the same people who not wholeheadedly but wholeheartedly supported this folksy North Carolina lady who attended Duke Law School and hasn't lived anywhere between Murphy and Manteo for the full span of Fidel Castro's term in Cuba. But we shall continue to cogitate on that one as there must be a sound explanation somewhere in it.)
But, we are sure that the lady can think for herself for she did go to Duke Law School, after all--and that is a pretty good one and was in the late 1950's when she attended it. One has to be a pretty smart cookie to get into it and to graduate out of it usually, we are told and do believe--one who can think analytically and dispassionately through some very complex issues of fact and law.
So in the future, we would really like to hear what the lady thinks rather than seeing all of this cute stuff designed to appeal to people whose heads are a little soft and not too perky on issues which affect all of us and would as soon vote for the conservative proponent of strong Fatherland Security, Adolf Hitler, for the Senate if his name were not Adolf, provided he got rid of the squished moustache and smiled more, stopped waving the arms so much, took off the boots, and developed a different brogue. You doubt? Well, look in the almanac. The year rhymes with Blinding Heavenly Coups.
Well, maybe the lady will be better than the man she replaces. As late as 1993, he was still more concerned about the presence of Fidel Castro in Cuba than any other foreign policy issue. Leastwise that was all he grilled Secretary of State-designate Warren Christopher about at his confirmation hearing.
But, quite frankly, we are more concerned about why the lady replacing him hasn't lived in the state she professes to love so much since Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba. Was there a connection for the lady between Castro coming to power in Cuba and her presence in North Carolina? We think the story deserved some attention.
We would have also liked to hear more from the man riding the donkey, for we had heard him before and we know him to be a thoughtful, articulate individual, though we know his campaign chest was much smaller than the lady's and for some odd reason the newspapers didn't seem to like to cover his campaign, having apparently anointed the lady who smiled a lot and talked very little. That is the way we do it now in a democracy.
We seen the parade (and the "debates"). It wasn't much.
Second Go Is Best
These double suicides that frequently turn out to be single-barreled affairs are very sad. A case in point is that of the blonde typist who penned some Spring flowers to her dress, just over the heart, so her young lover couldn't miss. He didn't. She's dead, but he--he lost his nerve and ran down the stairs crying for the police.
A single suicide calls for a lot of nerve or insanity and a double one for twice that amount. So, young lady, when you and the boyfriend talk it over and decide that there is only one way out, and that for him to shoot you and then himself--don't. You'd never be able to verify that he kept his part of the bargain.
Women, as somebody has said, are peculiar creatures. Women, having made up their minds to this "rash act," go into it whole-heartedly, for they reason, being of decisive temperament, that whatever they decide is best. But men--well, as Franky said of Johnnies in general--"There ain't no trustin' men."
Will This Do, Clarence?
Next week, the Chamber of Commerce goes out for 200 new members and it ought to have 'em. For a period back there when Old Mencken was satirizing the luncheon clubs and chambers of commerce, it became the fashion among the sophisticated to ridicule the boosters, the civic spirited. And cities in those days, it is true, were going wild with delusions of metropolitan splendor, and they did lay it on a bit thick. Every third adult male inhabitant was a come-on man.
But darker days showed us how vital to the city's outlook is a Chamber of Commerce which makes everybody's, and therefore nobody's, business its business. And if that holds good generally, it applies with particular force to this city, for we tell you, mates, the steady growth and expansion and commercial dominance of this Queen City, yclept Friendly, are about the most certain prospect that can be picked out today.
And happily, the Chamber of Commerce is functioning now, as it has been for several years, and in a large, aggressive, self-contained manner. It deserves the support of all of us whose futures are in any way linked up with that of the city.
Potpourri*
A number of things happened this past week that we had intended to say something about, but the press of new events distracted us, so that now they are either out of date as topics or have been succeeded by some fresher development.
But rather than waste good subjects altogether, it may be possible to cover each of them in a word or two. At any rate,
1. Bob Reynolds introduced a bill to make Armistice Day a legal holiday. At last we know what Bob stands for.
2. A spokesman for corduroy and velveteen mills told the committee working on a trade treaty with England that a moderate reduction of tariffs on corduroys of certain kinds would not be harmful. Will wonders never cease.
3. Charles A. Jonas was nominated by the Republican convention here to run for Senator. Charles A. Jonas was elected by the United Dry convention in Greensboro a member of the executive committee. Watch Charlie.
4. A Negro here was convicted of second-degree murder for killing another Negro he found in "his woman's" house. The fact that he got off with second-degree is to be accounted for, we take it, by the unwritten law against breaking up a man's love nest.
5. Former Ambassador to Germany Dodd said that if the democratic powers and Russia want to maintain their superior strength over Italy, Germany and Japan, they had better take them down before they get too strong. You lead the way, Ambassador, and maybe we'll follow.
6. Lammot Du Pont said that he hadn't the slightest doubt business could find work for all who really want a job if there were any assurance from the Government that conditions would remain reasonably stable. This is interesting, if true.
7. Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia now have minimum wage laws, all but one for women only. Twenty states and the District have maximum hour laws, mostly for women, though in some cases for men in certain occupations. Give the states a few more years, and maximum hours and minimum wages for all the people will have become a reality instead of a national political issue.
The God Tone
If what the little man with the little moustache is saying these days is calculated to give the world chills, there is still a measure of comfort in the tone of his utterances.
"I did not," he said last week, "plan the Austrian coup. On that Friday night I was not even thinking of Austria. Then, suddenly, I knew that the day and the hour of destiny were at hand."
And at Koenigsburg yesterday he told us:
Even the gods, the emissary of the Delphian oracle told Croesus by way of explaining the promised aid of Apollo which had not been forthcoming--even the gods must yield to Fate. But the little man seems to believe that he himself is the Resistless incarnate.
And that is the tone of the Napoleon of the last phrase--the Napoleon of the disastrous Moscow expedition and Waterloo. It is, according to Pluarch and Sueonius, the tone of Julius Caesar on the morning he went out to die. It is the tone that Herodotus ascribes to Xerxes on the eve of Salamis. And it is the tone of the Kaiser after the collapse of Russia and the overrunning of Central Europe in 1916--of the Kaiser who nowadays concerns himself with chopping wood in Holland.
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