The Charlotte News

Wednesday, July 19, 1939

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: "Senate's Right" provides more insight as to why Cash was so staunchly opposed at this time to the continuing convention of filibuster in the Senate as well as the other methodology of stultifying legislation, refusing to report bills out of committee to the floor for a full vote. Arguably, the isolationists in so holding up most aid to England and France for nearly two years between spring, 1939 and early 1941, enabled in the meantime Hitler to have his way on the entire central Continent.

The incidental mention in "Back to Work" of the Bonus Army refers to the 1932 mass gathering of about 20,000 World War veterans on the Anacostia flats in Washington to demand early payment of a 1924 bill which promised each veteran a dollar per day for every day in service up to $500, $1.25 for every day of overseas service up to $625, but not to be paid until 1945, with interest accumulating in the meantime such that average payments would be about $1,000 per veteran--payment which preceded the post World War II G.I. Bill. The Depression brought increased need for the bonus and so in May, 1932, the veterans marched to Washington. A bill to accelerate the payment passed the House but failed in the Senate in June. In late July, President Hoover, blaming the demonstrations on "Red" agitators and "criminal elements", (sound familiar re the putative sources, "those bearded thugs", of the sixties-early seventies anti-war movement as proclaimed by another Republican President?), after the police were unable to preserve order, called out the 3^rd Cavalry and 12^th Infantry of the Army under the direction of General Douglas MacArthur, with adjutants George Patton and Dwight D. Eisenhower, to break up the mob. Two veterans were killed and a thousand more were injured in the resulting melee of tear gas and smoke bombs hurled by the Army into the veterans' encampment; the gruesome spectacle of soldiers marching on veterans and then burning their crude shacks was yet another incendiary spark to the fuel of the Depression itself, insuring the defeat of Hoover to FDR in the 1932 election, lest there were to be active revolt in the country. The veterans returned to Washington in the spring of 1933, but FDR also turned down their request to back anew the legislation for early payment, as Eleanor Roosevelt met personally with them in a considerably more courteous display than that which had preceded. Eventually, they were offered slots in the newly formed Civil Conversation Corps and the controversy subsided.

For more on the controversy surrounding Senator McKellar's investigation of Great Smoky Mountain Park superintendent J. Ross Eakin, as discussed in "Candid Man", see "Body Blow", January 24, 1941 and "A Confession", February 2, 1941.

Worse Could Happen Than To Lose The Coveted O.K.

Central High School, constantly in danger of losing its accredited standing with the Southern Association of Colleges & Secondary Schools is in danger again of losing its etc., etc. Not enough money spent on books for school libraries.

And this, mind you, would be bad. It would indicate that, comparatively, Charlotte schools were not up to the standards of schools elsewhere, and a comparative basis is about the only way in which to grade schools.

All the same, when the school authorities cry that they are about to lose their accredited standing with the Southern Association of Colleges & Secondary Schools, we cannot resist asking (and answering) a couple of questions.

1. What is the SACSS? Why, an organization of pedagogues devoted principally and quite properly, to the welfare of other pedagogues.
2. What is this fearsome thing that happens when the school loses its accredited standing? Why, if they go to other than State institutions, its graduates have to stand college-entrance examinations. In fine, they have to show that they know their stuff instead of simply presenting an accredited certificate to that effect.

William Green Calls Off His Intimidation Attempt

Strikes begin on the front page and are settled inside somewhere. The strike of skilled labor against an increase in WPA hours of work was no exception. It fizzled out yesterday on Page 8.

Even pious William Green, who first boldly declared that unless Congress back-tracked there would be "strikes and strikes," appeared to have had the wind taken out of his sails. He had been to see Garner and had gained the impression that "there would be great difficulty in getting anything through Congress this session."

Thus endeth, at least for the time being, a deliberate attempt to influence legislation by an ugly-tempered mass demonstration. It is not the first even in modern times--remember the Bonus Army--nor is it likely to be the last. But it seems to have established beyond any doubt that the Government presently remains the master of its servant, Labor, which is as it should be and that unionization as an instrument of Federal policy is still obedient to its sponsors.

The Hon. McKellar Owns Up To His Purposes

The Hon. Pat (for "Patronage") McKellar, Senator in Congress from Tennessee, has at last got through his resolution for the investigation of J. Ross Eakin, Superintendent of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

He has been trying to get that investigation for a very long time. And it may be that he is not altogether satisfied with what he has got. For Senator Vandenberg read in an amendment which leaves the investigation up to the Senate Public Lands Committee instead of to a special committee of five which McKellar had demanded and which he probably hoped to hand pick.

What he wants Eakin investigated for, he explains quite candidly. The fellow, he charges, is a "West Virginia Republican" who manages to get as many Republicans into the park service as he can. How he knows that the fellow is a Republican he sets out just as candidly. He has affidavits from three election officials at Gatlinburg, Tenn., that they smeared Eakin's 1936 ballot with ink so as to identify it, and that they gave him (McKellar) the ballot which shows that Eakin voted for Alf Landon. Yes, for the record he charges "gross incompetence and probable dishonesty." But Harald Ickes, who is Eakin's boss, reports that the charges are without foundation.

The Hon. McKellar, that is, is having Eakin investigated at considerable expense to the country precisely because he has been trespassing on the Senator's private patronage preserves in Tennessee--because he has some patronage the Senator wants. But there is one almost pleasant if a little breath-taking thing about McKellar. He lives and has his being wholly for patronage. But he makes no bones about confessing it either.

But It Is Not Given To Be Used In This Fashion

Said Senator Borah last night when the President declared that responsibility for the failure to enact the neutrality bill must rest squarely on the Senate:

The Senator is entirely right. The President's function in relation to the legislative power is merely that of a proposer. To dispose is the right of Congress. And there is nothing wrong, per se, in the Senate's asserting its power clearly and forcefully.

Nevertheless, there is much which is plainly wrong in its assertion of that power in this case. The power of Congress is not power that belongs to Congressmen as individuals--but a power that belongs to the nation as a whole, and which is delegated to Congressmen on the express condition that it be used wholly with regard to the welfare of the nation. And no one believes that to be behind its use in this instance. Partisanship, personal spite, the desire for revenge, the will to serve our enemies in Europe at the expense of our friends--these are the motives which have determined the result of the neutrality fight. These things and the arrogant assumption on the part of a minority of the right to defeat the will of the majority. The honesty of Senator Borah will be granted by everyone. Like Hiram Johnson, he profoundly believes that isolation is a workable policy. And that he has the right to believe that and act on it is unquestionable. But Senator Borah has no right at all to set up to keep the majority from having the right to pass on the issue. And that is precisely what his vote against reporting the neutrality measure out from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee amounted to.

Warehousemen Must Have Theirs, Regardless

The barter agreement under which the United States is to swap England 600,000 bales of cotton for 175,000,000 pounds of rubber--those to be stored by the respective governments and to be used in war times--is in danger of being held up indefinitely. By the warehousemen in the interior.

The Government had planned to move one million bales of the lint to the regular cotton shipping seaports--New York, New Orleans, Galveston, Charleston, Wilmington and soon--let the regular cotton grading staffs select 600,000 bales of cotton which come up to English specifications, and store the remainder in these ports for future shipments. But the warehousemen scattered about the interior of the country are up in arms over that demand that the 600,000 bales be selected in their warehouses and the remaining 400,000 bales be left with them. That means a greatly increased cost to the Government, since special grading staffs will have to be set up in widely separated districts. And it also means interminable delay. Nevertheless, the warehousemen have succeeded in bringing such pressure on Congress that looks as if they will have their way or hold up the deal indefinitely.

These warehousemen have no claim in justice, you see. It is no question of their services being needed. Simply, they want to keep hold on the public teat, and mean to do so if they possibly can, regardless of the waste. And that they are getting their way is a pretty good illustration of how we are getting to be governed.