The Charlotte News

Tuesday, April 29, 1941

FIVE EDITORIALS

That the Nazis needed to come across the border to purchase silk for parachutes suggests both the ongoing nature of the spy operation in Mexico and either a plan to penetrate military or strategic facilities, such as the Panama Canal, for obtaining information or more probably for sabotage, or as a contingency in case of the need of quick escape from Mexico, parachuting into more friendly purlieus such as might be found in Brazil for instance, should bribe money not enable escape back to Germany via Veracruz. In any event, assuming the story related to Ms. Thompson had credit, there was some plan afoot which involved a contingency needing parachutes, obviously for use from some privately chartered plane and for some purpose implying nefarious operations still quite ongoing.

And history tends to confirm the validity of the Thompson anecdotes, not the more optimistic Clapper report. That there were in fact still 240 Nazi spies to be deported from Mexico by February, 1942, despite warnings issued since July to the Nazis to leave the country, suggests that prior to the initiation of the final arrest crackdown in late 1941, ushered in at the insistence in part of Josephus Daniels acting on behalf of the U.S. Government beginning with his unheeded request of July 12 for the arrest of three Nazi spies, confirms that in April the numbers and activities of the spies and saboteurs were still substantial, that the crackdown of the operations promised by President Avila Camcho of Mexico was more show than substance to win the continued confidence of necessary trading partner and natural geographic ally, the United States.

After all, the United States was still buying up that worthless silver by the truckload and resisting a crackdown on payment for the oil expropriated from British and American companies in March, 1938. (Query, was the overlooking of restrictions on trade to permit selling oil from California oilfields to Japan, not only by way of hope, by not engaging in full embargo, to alleviate pressure from the warlords on the more reasonable and diplomatic-minded Japanese to undertake an attack on the Dutch East Indies, thought highly probable for some time, but also to provide the oil companies with some token remedy for its loss of the oil properties in Mexico, enabling trade with Japan at perhaps higher prices for crude than obtainable in domestic markets?)

Moreover, the fact that the spies in the end were merely passively deported, with only two unsuccessfully tried for espionage, imports further confirmation of a continuing tolerant stance through 1941 by Mexico to the Nazi spy operations, primarily the result not only of Mexico's trade interests with the Axis nations, especially the expropriated oil for which no other market existed, albeit a market limited to Japan by the British blockade of Germany in place since shortly after September 1, 1939, but also the natural sympathy to Germany engendered by the heavy German civilian population intermarried with the Mexican population and the historical economic alliance during World War I when Germany first sought a foothold for propaganda and sabotage in North America to undermine the United States from south of the border.

The People Turn Out and Take Over an Election

It was amateur night in Charlotte and the carriage trade turned out. The result was astonishing and altogether encouraging to those who like to think of elections as the free expression of the people's choice.

Three good men were running for mayor. Mr. Davis professed to be an independent with no strings tied to him. All the same, he was backed by an organization (apparently well-heeled) which included both professional politicians and a little group of men whose intentions toward the City Government are subject to question.

As a true independent, Mr. Davis would have deserved support. As a champion selected by these interests, he lost his amateur standing.

Mr. Baxter too was an organization candidate. To him had been bequeathed the support of the City Hall group, and as the heir apparent to Mayor Douglas and the trial balloon of Congressional atmospheric conditions, he found himself between two currents. In several boxes he packed 'em in, but when the people at large began to be heard from, the day belonged to Mr. Currie and the Citizens Group.

And that, without derogation to Messrs. Davis and Baxter, was the encouraging feature of yesterday's balloting. Political novices, with the end of good government and nothing further in view, banded together and carried the day with votes to spare. The professionals were cut down to size. Ward-heelers learned their relative importance.

The prospect is that the breakthrough of the Citizens Group and the disruption of hard and fast political alignments will assure the city of a first-rate Mayor and City Council, no matter what turn the election proper may take. And if that in turn leads back to a condition where any man may submit for office without having to be first taken on by this machine or that and without having to put up excessive amounts of money, we all would be the gainers.

Mediation Board Might Have Settled This in Beginning

John Lewis pounded the conference table yesterday and held to his determination to do away with the Southern differential in coal mine wages. But the decision of the Southern operators to reopen their mines while continuing negotiations with CIO appears to have settled the coal strike for all practical purposes.

What the Southern operators finally agreed to as the basis for re-opening the mines was to match the Northern wage increase of a dollar. CIO had demanded that the wage be brought up from $5.60 to $7.00. The operators had countered with a proposal of a flat eleven per cent increase, which would have nearly doubled the Southern differential advantage.

The crying shame about all this is that the settlement could just as well have been arranged a month ago before the strike was called. For that failure both sides to the dispute were obviously to blame--CIO in insisting that the wage differential be eliminated at this time, and the Southern operators in trying to secure a wider margin of differential.

But the Government was to blame also. Day after day the nation was assured by Dr. Steelman, Madam Perkins' conciliator, that the strike was about to be settled. And the President went on refusing to order Madam to certify the dispute to the Defense Mediation Board.