The Charlotte News

Tuesday, April 22, 1941

FIVE EDITORIALS

Site Ed. Note: Neither of the pieces we omitted from this day is likely by Cash. J. E. Dowd was a military reservist who joined the Navy as a lieutenant, J.G. after Pearl Harbor, turning the editorship over to sports page editor, Burke Davis. The use of the term "cits", short for "citizen", another word for the more common "civvies" for civilian dress of military personnel, is likely therefore from Dowd, though of course Cash read copiously on military affairs, was a veritable sponge for accumulating appropriate nomenclature on any given topic, and had for a year after his failed attempt at enlistment in the Navy at age 17 in 1917, been a member of the Students' Army Training Corps, with tasks at various shipbuilding yards and the Army cantonment in Spartanburg. So while the mere fact of this term's presence is not dispositive of the case, it nevertheless suggests our hunch that at least the first piece was more probably by Dowd--not in point of fact that it matters a whole hill of beans, whether reading it in cits, full dress, khakis or short-shorts.

Returning for a moment to one of the pieces we uploaded in 1998, "A Definition", its notion that the United States couldn't attack Japan if it wanted, Japan being too far away from U.S. bases, was a correct assessment, under normal conditions. But after the Pearl Harbor invasion, the adrenal stimulus was provided to afford the inerrant, intractable determination to death-defying raiders to prove the thesis wrong when, on April 18, 1942, under the command of World War flying ace Jimmy Doolittle, magically aloft in 16 feather-lightened B-25 bombers after departing enigmatically from the short strip of the aircraft carrier Hornet, a squadron of select U.S. Army pilots successfully bombed the trou-de-loup which was Tokyo, and lived to tell about it. Sometimes in matters of war, as in sports, a stunt seemingly worthy of a funambulist performing the while legerdemain in chains may, though of the moment of little practical consequence, go far, in terms of enchantment and restoration of confidence, especially in the face of bewitching potions having been cast to cause the Wallenda to become the somnambulist, ultimately to win the war. Colonel Doolittle, in addition to his flying skills, had acquired a doctorate from M.I.T., and thus was not deterred by such as wild-hair Mitfords and their pals.

Distinguished Guests Testify To His Missionary Work

A gala day was yesterday. The streets of the city were full of soldiers (as they will be every day in a little while) and the girls were bright-eyed, as they always have been in the presence of the uniform.

On a series of platforms above street level moved the distinguished guests and brass hats, and they too were numerous. Generals were commonplace, and Mayor La Guardia and Governor Broughton would have stood out conspicuously had not the higher-ranking officers of the Army followed the old U.S. (and democratic) custom of wearing cits for all celebrations. The bigger the celebration, the slouchier those cits.

The Douglas Airport (municipally owned) got itself handsomely dedicated, all right, and the city was the gainer in the process. And the occasion went to show, as a lot of occasions have in the past (and a lot of inspection tours on the q. t.), that when it comes to promoting the city of Charlotte, Mayor Ben Douglas has no peer.

This was Ben's day, a sort of preliminary flourish to write finis to his three administrations. The group he collected for it testified to his assiduous cultivation of contacts in high places for the benefit of the city he has served so well and goes on serving.

Mediation Board Seems To Be Only a Front for FDR

The President's proposals for resumption of operations in the coal mines of the nation seem rational enough.

But it remains a mystery why this fight hasn't been turned over to the Defense Mediation Board for settlement. What is holding up the case is clear enough; it is the balkiness of the so-called Southern mine-owners, that is mainly Northern capitalists with mines in the South.

The Appalachian operators in general have agreed to the union demand for an increase in the daily wage from $5 to $7, with other demands left to further negotiation after the return to operation. The Southern group, with the notorious Harlan operators at their center, marched out of the conference which agreed on that.

What they said they objected to was the determination of the Northern operators to do away with the Southern differential, under which the Southern mines had been paying a wage of $5.60 as against $6 in the North.

But what they really proposed was a wage increase of eleven per cent over their present scale, as against $7 in the North, something which would nearly double their differential advantage.

These mines have been the most militantly anti-union in the country. And it seems clear enough that they are simply trying to play the national emergency for advantages both as against labor and as against their Northern competitors.

The Mediation Board should be set to look into their differential claims at once, with full authority to reveal the facts to the public, in order that the weight of national opinion may be brought to bear to bring them to a reasonable position.