Newspapers / The Independent (Elizabeth City, … / July 18, 1919, edition 1 / Page 6
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a- 1 I I p F ; s ail r '3- ' 1t" ! in in - ..-S v i-vjt--..- "READY FOR BUSINESS eh a a. air o II n s T! TIT) J VIRGINIA OF NORFOLK, ,000.00. Chartered June 3, 1919 Under U. S. Government Supervision R,Kin, Antlmrized . 0 F F I C E R S : U1UUVUVU V www " Authorized Ca pital $250 Makers of Long Time Farm Loans Selling and Issuing Tax Exempt Bonds To Act As Government Depositary To Buy and Sell Government Bonds A. P. GRICE, President W. T. OLD, Vice-President WALTER H. TAYLOR, General Counsel J. A. GOODWYN, Treasurer F. W. McKINNEY, Secretary PARTIAL LIST OF DIRECTORS An institution to provide capital for agricultural development, to create a standard form of investment based upon farm mortgages, to equalize rates of interest upon farm loans, to furnish a market for United States Bonds, to create Government depositaries, and financial agents for the United States. W T 01 President Seaboard National Bank, Norfolk Barton Myers, President Chamber of Commerce and C. P. Aycock, President Bank of Belhayen, N. C. Norman Bell, Vice-President Citizens Bank Board of Trade . W. G. Gather, yice-President First and Citizens Nation- Walter H. Taylor, Attorney at Law Judge lames L. McLemore, President Amencan Ex-. al Bank of LlizabethLity, N. L. Robert F. Baldwin, Baldwin Bros., Real Estate change National Bank, Suffolk, Va. A. P. Grice, President Guaranty Title Trust Corp. George W. Roper, Manufacturer and Investments Cosmos F. Smith, Smith & Welton, Dry Goods PRESENT LOCATION: LAW BUILDING, SECOND FLOOR NORFOLK, V A. V ' 1 1 : " 1 " i I .. . .- AMERICA NEEDS A NEW POLITICAL ALIGNMENT By ALLEN McCURDY "In politics," wrote John Stuart Mill, "it is almost a commonplace that a party of order and stability and a party of progress and reform are both es sential elements of a healthy state of political life." Theoretically one would say at once that unless parties were apposed to each other they would not exist. The theory would be confirmed by observing the organization of parties in other constitutionally governed coun tries. Two major parties opposed to each other on principle insure the dis cussion of every issue which seriously affects the well-being of the people. Political campaigns become the most efficient educational institutions dem ocracy can create. The voters have a real chance to participate in govern ment, to hear both sides of the ques tion discussed with equal freedom, en KSTCed and. defended with equal talent and energy, and then to give an en lightened and conviriced mandate whether, on the given issue, they de sire order and stability, or progress and change. No matter which party wins the election, there is always an organ ized opposition which creates an op position press. Neither party can go to extremes of policy. That suspicion of the people, upon which Hallam as serts the durability of liberty rests, is constantly alert. Discussion, by which alone democracy was created and by which alone it can be maintained, be comes habitual in the life of the na tion. Such is a healthy state of political life in a nation. But there is no symp tom of this health in American politics, i Irt 1891 Ambassador Bryce recorded in "The American Commonwealth" ' his astonishment that neither of our two major parties had any distinctive prin ciples, tenets, or tendencies. "Neither has anything definite to say about any ne of the twenty issues one hears as seriously involving the people. All has been hope of it." 'n his Charley Murphy," the speakers were dumb. Other political leaders are sail to be more frank. Vice-President Mar shall is reported to have offered a prize of five dollars to anyone who would tell him the difference between the Democratic and the Republican party. -The latest word is from Mr. William Hard, in the Metropolitan mag azine, May, 1919: "The truth is, in America, the major parties, the Demo cratic and Republican party, are not national parties at all." Has America then no national party? Of course it has. It has one of the most reactionary parties of stability and order in the world. This reaction ary party has two sections: the North ern, or Republican; and the Southern, or Democratic. In no other country is the party of stability and order so deeply and cleverly intrenched. Why raise issues, why promise discussion, when by presenting personalities and keeping the public mind away from facts, you can keep control by means of the "Democratic-Republican" ballot box? Consequently, for the last thirty years at least (except during the free silver campaign, - which raised a real issue such as every national election should raise?, national elections - have been huge Punch and Judy shows, Democratic Punches fighting Republi can Judys,, to the delight of the assem bled multitudes. But no one gets so much solid amusement and comfort out of the proceedings as the invisible reactionary ventriloquist who sits be hind the curtain, as the deluded voters grasp him firmly, first by his right I hand and then by his fist. Or has he been grasping them? The Republican-Democratic party of order arid stability is always in con trol. Neither section of this national party ever endangers its policy of re action by presenting real issues to people, for discussion and debate are always dangerous to reaction. Instead of issues this party relies on person alities and the disgust of the progres sive voters to maintain its unques tioned dictation of national policies, ample, Mr. Hard at present rep . Publican leaders as sayr t wtih a policy, omethirfg; What hing. Why try " . pro -Republican? it is anti-Demo-s ne and watch the ;es put us in the tisanship. There, is t it is not a contest ; is a contest about al appropriations. One lers succeeds another; ade out . to different .ction cares nothing for the checks so long as it ntrol of policies. The , er cannot, under the pres sed party- dominance, in fluence national policies. He can only put the "outs" in and the "ins" out of office. There is only one national ballot-box. It is the Republican-Democratic box. The hyphen lies directly over Mason and Dixon's line. This box has one partition which rests on a re movable slide placed somewhere near the centre of the ballot-box. A ma jority of votes on the Republican side means merely that a Republican Pres ident is about to appoint a Cabinet controlled by Northern gentlemen whose principal business is to see that the bulk of Federal offices is given to Northern Republicans in order to tighten the Northern section of the Republican-Democratic machine. It al so means that a Northern Congress man is elected chairman of the Appro priations Committee, whose principal business is to see that as little Federal money as possible goes south of Mason and Dixon's line, and as much as pos sible north of it. When a majority of votes is found on the Democratic side of the partition, the only real meaning is that the above process is reversed; the bulk of Federal offices7 and the bulk of Federal money flows to the South to build up the Southern section of the Democratic-Republican party of order and stability. When this mo mentous practical question which group of plunder seekers is to have the bulk of the spoils is decided, then reaction pulls the slide, and Republican ballots mingle intimately with Democratic ones in securing to the powers of re- action control of the entire nation, both North and South Men and women who believe in sta bility and order ought to have a party and a ballot-box through which to ex- Don't Take a Chance on obtaining a Kodak or Kodak Film while on your vacation. YOU KNOW that HALL has the largest stock in the South. G. L. HALL OPTICAL CO. 4 KODAK STORES 4 Norfolk' & Richmond press their honest convictions. The mischief in the United States has been, and is, that they have had both ballot boxes, and have obtained the votes of those who believe in change and pro gress under false pretences perpetuated, under these different names, Republi can and Democratic. They have not, therefore, been compelled to defend their order and their stability. Tljere has been no opposition press, because there has been no opposition party. Public discussion of questions vitally affecting the welfare of the people has fallen so far into disuse as. to have reached the point of being considered, by "pulpit, press, and university alike, either dangerous or wicked. Lacking the knowledge of facts which free and honest discussion alone makes univer sal, the American tory is said to be the most ignorant person in the world. This lack of public discussion threat ens the . intellectual life of the whole nation. It has produced at least one deplorable and disquieting result: one half of this people does not know what the other half thinks. Uninfluenced by that public discussion which is neces sary to enlist the intelligent co-operation of a convinced people, not only prohibition, but all other issues, are taken away from the consideration of the voters and settled by legislative committees and caucuses, which de cide, never on the merits of the issue, but always on the "politics" of the is sue. The laws may be good or bad. Merits of the laws thus made are not involved in this question at all. But as the democratic English bishop re marked: "It is better to have a people free than to have a people sober." This method of law-making is evil through and through. Of such stuff is despo tism made and by such stuff is, liberty destroyed. Democracy is concerned primarily, not with the making of good laws, but with the making of good peo ple. Germany gave goqd streets to Berliners. America gives bad streets to New Yorkers. But democracy is willing to wait until the experience of bad streets creates voters who demand good streets. To conceive fine laws and superimpose them from above is not the method of democracy; it is the method of autocracy ' and despo tism. The need for the construction of a new ballot-box is evident. The voters who believe in progress and reform have their honest opinions; but they have, neither party nor ballot-box thru which to express them. They are prac tically disfranchised. They are forced at present either to choose between the Republican-Democratic game is well which they do not believe, and the So cialist ballot-box, in which likewise, they do not believe, or to stay at home. The necessity for this new ballot-box is rapidly becoming imperative. The Republican-Democratic grame is well nigh played out. Reaction might as well unite its forces and become open, outspoken, and honest. This plan has, indeed, been considered as a national policy, and has actually been practiced in congressional districts when react ion felt its power threatened. More over, sectionalism is dead. The ' great war wiped" away its last vestige. The economic and industrial problems that create the vital political issues .of the present divide into two honest oppos ing camps the voters of every city, town, village, and agricultural district throughout the entire nation. , Unless the voters who believe in changes and reforms are given the op portunity to make those changes through constitutional discussion and political decision, the forces of unrest and discontent will widen and deepen, until at some future day they break forth in violent revolution. Reaction becomes insane when it strives to sup press the discussion of the vital prob lems of life. It places itself squarely against those impalpable forces of the human spirit which know no opposi tion. "Idiots," said Sir Charles James Napier, "talk of agitators; there is but one in existence, and that is injustice." Nor dare we forget in this day of nati onal crisis the wise word of Sir Robert Peel, who defined discussion to be "the marshalling of the conscience of a na tion to mould its laws." Hitherto believers in progress and change have been trusting, souls, know ing he situation, but standing, like Micawber, waiting for something to turn up to right matters: Fooled with hope, men favor deceit; Trust on, and think tomorrow will repay, Tomorrow's falser than the former day; Lies worse, and while it says we shall be blest With some new joys, cuts off what we possessed. The time has come for them to cease hoping and go to work. No real issue is going to break through the stone wall of Republican-Democratic control. No European convulsion is to re-align American political life. oCngress is not "going to restore liberty to American people." Liberty comes by no such easy "pill-taking method." Liberty comes to men who seize it and by eter nal vigilance keep it. The creation of a new ballot-box means the construct ive will and the steady work of those who need it in order to assert their right of participation in the govern ment of their own nation. How many are they? No one knows. The forces of progress and reform have never had an organized identity. They have been scattered and concealed within the supporting ranks of this reactionary Democratic-Republican organization. Let them but separate themselves from an organization that stands against their convictions and defeats their hopes, and they will discover their power, at the same time forcing their opponents into the open to defend that order and stability in which they have secretly believed. Wanted a ballot-box! The party of order and stability has one. The So cialist has one. The terrorist does not want one; he seeks a bomb, and in the wicked stupidity of violence plays in to the hands of the party of order and stability and discredits the forces of peaceful progress and change. The Bolshevikapours his bitter scorn upon such an infantile idea as a new ballot box; he wants a new v world and he wants it quick; he would manufacture a revolution, ' or what to . his foolish (Concluded on. page 10) , - .'. dean - Up - July 21st To July 26 Inclusive All residents of Elizabeth City are urged, to "Clean Up" their grounds and homes'and deppsit all refuse of any and all discrip tion on the sidewalk line on the day of the regular collection for their district. ' The City will be glad to take this material away without charge. am nip er City F. W. SIMONDS City Manager L Do You Need Stationery? See Us
The Independent (Elizabeth City, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 18, 1919, edition 1
6
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