Site Ed. Note: The actual printed title of "Quite Clear" was "Quiet Clear", and so, though we try not to tamper with the print as printed usually, we make this exception in a title which appears quiet but obviously, based on the majority opinion anyway, perfectly a misprint.

Well, anyone in solid accord with the present Administration's foreign policy, as well its excuses for domestic spying to fit well that foreign policy, ought find plenty in Dr. Stoddard's little book about which to use as support for its arguments--since probably most of its arguments derive ultimately from such new century, (post the fin de siècle), sources anyway.

Delay Is Only Point That Calls For Stern Stand

That the State Department should stand by its guns in the argument with Britain over searching United States mails in transit to Germany is natural.

The thing is certainly a violation of international law as at present agreed upon, and it is the policy of the nation to insist on the letter of its rights under that law.

However, it is entirely unnecessary for the people in general to get steamed up about the matter. We ourselves searched mails and did everything else we liked in 1917-18. And if it is a violation of international law, it is also to be said for Britain that authorities are agreed that international law is in need of great revision in the light of modern conditions.

For instance, it grossly violates international law for a submarine to fire on a merchant ship without prior search and warning. Yet the authorities agree that the submarine, in its nature, cannot carry out that provision with any regard to its own safety. Or again, it is a violation of international law for armed merchantmen to enter neutral ports save under the conditions of ships of war, but we calmly ignore that, in the case of Allied ships, as being utterly impractical.

And with the great importance of communications in modern commerce, it is quite as logical for Britain to search mails as to search cargo holds.

What is really inexcusable on her part is the long and entirely unnecessary delays she imposes on the mails by taking her own good time about the search. On that point, the State Department might well afford to wax genuinely imperative.

Site Ed. Note: "...The people out on the Isle of Wight didn't give a damn though."

Age Cannot Take The Fire Out Of This Old Boy

Old Carter Glass is 82 years old now but there is nothing quavering about the tone of him yet.

There is a good deal of quavering in the Senate right now, or at least of semi-quavering. There is Bearcat John Garner from Texas, who is dead against giving the Finns any loans, for fear he might somehow get us into war. And perhaps also for fear that it might somehow affect John Garner's chance of grabbing off the Democratic nomination to the Presidency this year.

And on the other hand there is Arthur Vandenberg, the great neutrality man, who is quavering loudly for breaking off relations with Russia.

All sorts of other men who set up for forthright fellows are also behaving like that. One minute they are roaring with indignation, the next they are over in the corner quavering that if we make a single pass in Europe, Hitler, Stalin & Co., plus the machinations of cunning old John Bull, will have us right in the middle of the struggle.

But about old Carter Glass there is no doubt at all. Says he:

Like it or not, there is not now, as there has never been in the past, any question about where he stands.

Pedestrians, Motorists, And The Right Of Way Quarrel

Mr. Harry C. Doane, of the General Motors Corporation, seems to think that he has a swell idea for the benefit of pedestrians. He tells the Society of Automotive Engineers that automobiles should be fitted with "winking and blinking" lights to advise other motorists of their intentions to turn, etc. And not only in the rear of the car but on the front also, so as to advise pedestrians waiting in intersections of the motorist's purpose to turn left or right on the green light.

It might help. But it does not go to the root of the problem, which is quite simply that the turning motorist and the pedestrian want to use the same crossing at one and the same time. The problem exists everywhere, but in some places it is handled better than elsewhere. In Charlotte it is handled atrociously. Here, if flashing a signal were made ample warning, the pedestrian might well have to wait at the busier intersections for half an hour while the cars whipped in rapid stream in front of him. Certainly no city cop would ever interfere in his behalf.

The courts of most states, including North Carolina, have ruled that the pedestrian has the right of way on the green light. But many drivers in the city apparently believe that sounding their horns gives them the right to come on around at a speed which leaves the motorist [sic] already in the process of crossing no choice but to imitate the kangaroo and leap for his life. And the cops apparently agree.

What in common sense is wanted, of course, is no absolute right of way for either party to the swearing quarrel. But some sort of reasonable compromise. But how to get it remains a puzzler. Three way lights have been suggested, under which straight-ahead traffic would first have the right of way, then turning traffic, then the pedestrians. But it has the disadvantage of slowing up and congesting traffic.

Site Ed. Note: "There were three men...made a solemn vow..."

Thus, whether Mr. Browder might have successfully made such an argument on appeal would have depended on whether he could show he was targeted primarily for his political beliefs and exercise of free speech and associational rights as a Communist; to demonstrate that, he might have supplied statistics to buttress his claims that other similarly situated persons who were not Communists, or who did not advocate unpopular beliefs and causes, routinely violated the passport laws with impunity or that few, if any, were prosecuted at all for the violations with which he was charged as based on the specific attendant facts alleged in the case.

In any event, Browder was released after serving fourteen months of his sentence, at a time when the United States found itself in alliance with the Soviet Union for mutual preservation.

It is also worth noting, for those given to the ironic, but deceptively sympathetic, as we obviously are, that Mr. Browder's name arose in oddly ironically sympathetic company at one point in history:

The appellant there, incidentally, lost in his bid to have an Act of Congress authorizing possession by the Government of Presidential papers and records, passed in the wake of appellant's contractual agreement made with GSA to severely limit access to his papers, invalidated as an unconstitutional violation of separation of powers, an unconstitutional invasion of executive privilege, an unconstitutional invasion of privacy rights, a violation of the First Amendment, unduly chilling of associational rights, or an unconstitutional Bill of Attainder, that is a law passed specifically aimed at appellant.

The moral appears here that just deserts, (with a No. 2 red dyed cherry on top), come to those who wait.

Browder Gets Only What His Crime Called For

Judge Coxe told the Browder jury yesterday that the verdict of guilty was the only possible one which could have been reached.

And indeed, it was plainly so on the basis of Browder's own admissions. He had used the names of three other men as his own in securing passports. And that is a crime under the passport laws, punishable by a maximum of five years' imprisonment and $10,000 fine for each offense. Browder got off with four years and $2,000 fine for two offenses, which lends no color to the cry the Communists will inevitably raise, that his Communism determined the length of his sentence as well as his conviction.

Nor will the claim that the charge was merely frivolous hold water. It was a technical crime of which he was guilty, certainly, but so are countless others for which men go to jail, as for instance, evasion of the income tax laws, violation of the Federal revenue laws, etc. The argument that it was necessary to his safety in Europe is nonsense, since it was entirely unnecessary to cross Germany to reach Russia. His real motive probably was to keep the Government from knowing of his movements and so embarrassing not only himself but the Soviet Government (which had promised to discontinue its activities in the United States), as well as to avoid newspaper publicity.

One thing however, may be said for his argument. He continually contended throughout the trial that other men who are neither Communists nor Fascists, have broken the passport laws with perfect impunity. If that is true, it still did not give him the right to break the law. But it does require that, if evenhanded justice is to be done, they should be rounded up and given the same dose Browder got.

Doc Goebbels Fails To Make Good His Boast

Dr. Goebbels' boast that the Germans were the only real adepts in propaganda, uttered in the early days of the war and repeated recently to Lothrop Stoddard, our American race-baiter, is not being borne out as time goes on. Goebbels did, indeed, persuade a great many people who ought to have known better that England had betrayed Poland, that this was a phoney war, etc.--for awhile. But that has begun to die out now.

And some of his efforts have been about as clumsy as any ever heard of. For instance, the claim which is still constantly repeated in the German releases in this country, that Mr. Winston Churchill had a bomb planted in the Athenia to blow her up. Or the stories about the Graf Spee's "victory."

But tops in clumsiness so far is the inspired DNB dispatch charging that French officers from a French warship who stopped and boarded the Orazio before she exploded and burned, sabotaged her.

France has devoted her every effort since the beginning of the war, not to antagonizing Italy but to placating her. And to commit an act of sabotage under such circumstances as these would be obvious insanity, calculated not only to bring Italy into war with France but to lose her the sympathy of the United States.

It may be true in propaganda, as Doc Goebbels and his master maintain, that the bigger the lie, the better. But that is surely always subject to the limitation that the lie must not be downright idiotic on its face.

Site Ed. Note: And here's a little filler of the date, from which is engendered in us great empathy:

J. D. S., Macon Telegraph

They all look alike to the debunkers. Here comes one with facts and figures to show that Benjamin Franklin, who invented thrift, was overdrawn at the bank at least three days out of every week.