North Carolina Newspapers

t - -? " ?*.mr&V . the Alamance gleaner VoL LXVI GRAHAM, N. C., THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1940 No. 24 i WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS BY ROGER SHAW F. D.'s Personality Dominates 1940 Democratic Convention; No U. S. Troops for Europe (EDITOR'S NOTE?When opinion, arc eiprrmt d in thcao oitaimt, they ? are thaoe of the new. analyst and not neoe?arlly of thia newspaper.) P*U"^ by Western Newspaper Union,,,,, Right op to convention time. Franklin D. BoommH kept the corn try guessing on third term plans. The Democratic National Convention, meet ing in Chicago, however, felt at all times the weight el the President'! personality. The sketch herewith Is hy the famous artist. Helge Sahlin. H GERMAN WAR: Ships & Planes Germany and England continued to blaat one another from the air, with foolhardy gallantry. Germany ?lowly seemed to be establishing supremacy of numbers, although her pilots were sometimes too young, and not equal on the whole to the veteran regulars who made up -a considerable portion of the royal air force: the R. A. F. In the Mediterranean sea, the English and French and Italian fleets continued to skirmish, off North Africa, off West Africa, off Greece. Some of the French ships were surrendered to the British navy, others were sunk or disabled. Demobilised French flyers were joining up again, this time to help the Italian airmen bomb British , Gibraltar. There were naval clashes ' between the Italian and British sea ' men, who already had eliminated 't seven of the eight French capital ! warships. The 43,000-ton "Be de France"?that French luxury liner ' so. well known in America?was seised by the British at Singapore, i England's No. 1 naval base in the , Far East, in the Malay peninsula. The best French warship?39,000 tons?was knocked out by a British motorboat, which artfully dropped a depth bomb near the stern. The vic tim was the famous Richelieu. NO U. S. TROOPS: But Billions for Defense Meanwhile, President Roosevelt emphatically told congress we would ?end no man to European wars, but would only seek to defend the west era hemisphere. Towards this end he, asked for billions of dollars. This presidential statement to congress tended to match the "peace" plank in the Republican campaign plat form, and might have removed one of the major issues from the UNO race. NAMES ... in the news Gen. Juan Almazan, Mexican pres idential candidate, praised the "suc cess" of tfas Mexican election, and lauded its small loss of life. There were only 50 killed. John Dewey, philosopher and ed ucationalist, returned to teach at Columbia university for the first time in 10 years. He is >0 years old, but addressed 1,000 students with all his eld steam. - rS. ' j, - YE CAMPAIGN: Fur Flies High Wendell Willkie appointed Con gressman Joe Martin of Massachu setts as his campaign manager, and then flew for Colorado on a vaca tion. En route, the Willkie airplane stopped in Nebraska. Willkie wise cracked to the crowd like this: "When I was out here three or four weeks ago, they said I brought rain. If you folks vote for me In Novem ber, we'll have the rain and the sunshine of economic progress." The folks thought that was just fine. John Hamilton remained executive director of the Republican national committee, though he was retiring as national chairman. Russell Davenport was Willkie's personal representative, and Or en Root kept busy co-ordinating volunteer groups and independent organizations. Ten newspaper men, three photogra phers, and two telegraphists stuck to Willkie, and to the airplane: a 21 passenger DC-3. At this point the Democrats had become more and more chaotic, due to lack of information about m term plans. Farley had been to Hyde Park, had learned the "truth," but came back to New York saying that it was all a secret. McNutt had in dicated that he knew about it, too, but Mrs. Roosevelt had said she didn't know a thing. Speculation was rife up to the time the national Democratic convention opened. Willkie, of course, had been praying for the in term (or so be said), in order to beat it down. But he still had not said anything extended, at that point, about foreign all airs. ARMY NOTE: /Veto York Squadron A is the crack high society national guard cavalry out fit in New York city. It used to wear snappy gray European hussar uniforms. It plays polo, and likes to talk horses, mid has a fine 56 year record. It turns out good rid ers, amid plenty of conviviality. Then?a third of it got mechanized, and received 19 armored cars, in stead of 97 horses. - The Seventh regiment is the crack high-society national guard infantry outfit in New York city. It used to wear fancy gray "1812" uniforms, with red stripes. It still does, on parade. It is more than 120 years old. Then?it turned into an anti aircraft outfit, attached to the coast artillery, hardly the most aristocrat ic branch of the service. WHAT A JOB: Reemployed The luckless duke of Windsor, who used to be King Edward VTII, got an other job,, at last. They made him governor of the Bahama islands, 20 of them inhabited, off the southeast coast of Florida. It was a $12,000 annual job, whose main function was to reign over ex-slaVes and tourists from the United States. Capital of the Bahamas is Nassau, on New Providence island, where they have a nice beach, and a saloon of merit called "Dirty Dick's." Windsor used to have 900,000,000 people to reign over. Now he has 68,000, plus 6 officers and 124 policemen. Crit ics said the basic idea was to get him out of Europe, in case the Ger mans took over England. Hitler, they thought, might oust brother George, and reinstate brother Ed ward, who is better liked all round. (On the other hand, Queen Eliza beth is much better liked than Duchess Warfleld.) M. PETAIN: Approved ? While the British and American newspapers were hammering old Marshal Petain, the saviour of Ver dun, who doesn't like Winston Churchill, the Vatican came out and declared that Petain was the best possible man to lead France. The Vatican said that the Marshal in spired French youth, and added that he represented the "best French tradition." Petain is a good Catholic, and a close friend of the Catholic dictator of Spain, his former pupil. General issimo Franco. French General Weygand, who aids Petain in the new Italo-type French government, is also devoutly religious, although Pierre Laval, third member of the Gallic triumvirate, has a non-cleri cal background. Laval is father-in law of the official heir of Lafayette. While the Vatican approved, the "new" France got under way. The senate was to be appointed for life, while the chamber was to repre sent trades, jobs, and occupations, as in the corporative state of Mus solini. Both senate and chamber were to be largely advisory, and trade unions were to be abolished, on the Italic plan. The professional trade groups, in the chamber, were to take the place of unions, and of political parties as well. The slogan of liberty-equality fraternity (dating from 1788) was to be supplanted by another trio: labor-family-nation. This, again, was based on the fascist system of Rome. One wit put it like this: "When in Paris, do as the Romans do."' RACIAL: Interesting One of our foreign commentators raised an interesting point. It was this. He said that although Ger mans are currently unpopular, for excellent reasons, the Americqp sys tem was still functioning splendidly. To prove his statement, he pointed out that Wendell Willkie was of Ger manic family origin. But this did not stop Mr. Willkie, able and mag netic and thoroughly likeable, from becoming the Republican candidate for President of the United States at a hectic time. Hitler himself, said the commen tator, was born in Austria, with only one Germanic parent, and one Czech parent (his mother). But Willkie was bom in America, be continued, wifh two Germanic parents. He concluded that Willkie was a better type of the Qermanic stock than the rampant Fuehrer. It was interest ing to note, in addition, that our General Pershing's family name was Pfoersching, in the "correct" spelling. Also, the Roosevelts have a Dutch origin which sometimes is mistaken for German. Ill REICH: Complexities The Hitlerian domain was sorted out into the following, to make its sway less confusing, for it covered a lot of ground in several main cate gories: 1. Hitler himself, phis tha Nasi party itself. 2. Germany, including Austria, tha Sudeten, Danzig, Poaen, etc. 3. Protectorates of Poland, Czecho slovakia, Norway, Denmark, Lux emburg, Holland, Belgium, of which Denmark is the pet, with tha Slo vaks, Norse and Dutch next 4. Fascist France?half victim, half neutral, a wee bit of an ally. 5. Italy, an ally, active. C. Japan, an ally, passive. Also Spain and Hungary. 7. Russia, a treaty partner, uncer tain. (Russia wants Constantinople.) I. Client states of Sweden, Ruma nia. (Through Sweden and Hungary Germany has army transit rights. Spain and Rumania might come into the War on the German side.) Bruckarft Washington Digest Taxes Raise Needed Revenue, But Are Not Basically Sound Only Part of Money Paid by Consumers Reaches Federal Treasury as Dealers Are* Forced to Collect i ? More Than Taxes Levied. \ \ ? ' i- ? By WILLIAM BRUCKABT WND Service, National Press BIdf., Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON.?Among the hands on my father's farm when I was a boy was a big Negro named Noah. He was a good worker, and strong as the team of inules that he claimed and always used. Noah was ? good farm hand. But my father could always count upon Noah be ing off of the Job tWo or three days after he was paid his wages each month. Noah, generally called "Chalk" because he was so black, would disappear as soon as he got his money and he did not return to work until that money was gone. It never seemed to concert! Noah one bit that he was broke and couldn't even buy tobacco for his corncob pip? unless somebody gave him money. He was that way throughout his life because he said he "never brought nuttin here" and . he would "take nuttin away" when he died. He really carried out that philosophy of life, for my father paid his burial expenses. .1 have been thinking of Noah and his ideas of living, lately, because of certain developments of national import. His philosophy was recalled especially when President Roosevelt asked congress for an increase in taxes fo defray the cost of the vast new program of national armament. It was recalled again when, out of a clear sky and in the shortest mes sage ever sent to congress in Mr. Roosevelt's seven years as head of the government, the President pro posed that congress take a second step in raising taxes. He asked for a "steeply graduated" excess profits tax. Additional Taxation Haa Boon Noodod Now, I believe anyone who has ever read my columns win agree that I have urged additional taxa tion, constantly. Op that point I never have wavered. It might be supposed then that I would go oft of the deep end fbr the new taxes. That, however, is not the case. I find myself willing to support only half of the program, for reasons that will be apparent as the situation is analyzed. 1 lie m?i lax increase was propii. i It was needed. The second proposal, that which cop tress is ye t to con sider, is not proper, but the revenue is badly needed. The difference is that the first program will yield revenue that, generally speaking, will be received by the treasury in its entirety. The second program will yield vast sums and only part of the tax paid by the consumers will reach the treasury. It is a strong statement to make when one says that the treasury will get only part of the amount paid by the taxpayers. It is true, however, because in a levy like the excess profits tax, every dealer, great or small,' collects more than the amount of the tax. We saw it when an excess profits tax eras in opera tion during the World war of 1917 1918. A tax that amounted to half a cent was paid as one cent for the very simple reason thst one has some difficulty in cutting a penny into tiro pieces. The seller is never going to absorb any tax, and I think he probably cannot be blamed. He raises the price to protect him self, and you and I and every moth er's son carries the load of tax when it is laid that way. The first tax program offered by Mr. Roosevelt was bad enough in that direction. On its good side, however, it can be said that it lev ied direct taxes on incomes, a meth od by which the tax, all of it, goes into ths treasury. That tax bill also extended the income tax to some thing like 2,900,000 additional tax payers, by reducing the personal ex emption allowed. That is to say, after July 1, of this year, a mar ried person with an income of >2,000 a year will pay income tax above that sum and a single person re ceiving >800 also will pay income tax for the first time. Previously, the exemption was $2,900 for a mar ried person and $1,000 for a single person. Ten Per Cent Supertax Added to Regular Levy There was included in the taxing act alao an increase in taxes from the previous rates. It was provided in the new law that a person receiv ing $2,000 a year, for example, will pay the old rate of tax and then will add a flat 10 per cent to that total as the amount he must coo tribute for support of his govern Ill ment and for building a real national rr defense. a) Let me show how this 10 per cent w added tax works out as a means of showing why I object to, and criti- to cize, it The 10 per cent was added to the so-called nuisance taxes?tax ^ on admissions, cigarettes, gasoline n and a thousand other articles. Take y cigarettes as an example. Popular g, brands sold in many places at two or for a quarter. The new price, gen erally, is two for 27 cents. But the w actual increase in price caused by the tax will be about one and a * quarter cents. The dealers aAll get el an increase in the price. * b. While 1 say with candor that the of dealers get an increase, 1 am not he one who is going to criticize them for it. I do not see how any indi vidual or firm could absorb that ad- . ditional tax?even though it is just ? one-eighth of a cent?on every sale 1 that is made. He would go broke 01 in a few months. So, there is more m than the amount of the tax collected jj? as a protection. Butinett Not at Sound d At It Wat in 1917-18 U< And that is the damnable feature ? of the excess profits tax. During H its first application?1917, 1918 and 1919?every business that had to pay ^ an excess profits tax had to protect g its own pocketbook. It could not " tell in April what its business would be in November, or any other 0j month. Its. prices had to be scaled ti upward to bring in enough profit ti that it would be able to pay the ^ tax, the amount of which it could ti not forecast. ti These new taxes come at a time nc when few businesses have any real ? reserve for a rainy day. Ten years b of depression has left them with no w fat. Yet, if we do not have the tl new taxes, where will our govern- si ment find itself? In respect of the lack of reserve, a the business of the cquntry is in d quite a different situation than it ti was in 1918 when the earlier excess k profits tax went on. Then, business d was functioning, making money a hand over fist, reaping war profits n from before the United States joined b the allies against Germany. Now, a the tax goes on and business is flat tl on its back. There is no use kid- a ding ourselves about the condition. In my opinion, any real economic ^ recovery is now definitely off until t such a type of tax is altered and _ the levy applied so that taxpayers . will know what tax they must pay ,. each vear. b Tax Structure of Nation Need ? Reorganization , The laying of these new taxes brings the people at the country face to face with another fact I ii have been preaching against waste fi and have been called anti-New Deal ii because I have criticized the ad- j ministration for piling up such a t huge debt?in excess of $49,000,000,- ti 000. But I believe a good. many d folks now are going to realize that tl Sen. Harry Byrd, the Virginia Dem- h ocrat, was exactly right when he d urged that the whole tax structure be gone over and reorganized. He ? wanted to sec a sound tax struo- a tare. He surely was right when he fa said there are contradictory and ri diculous tax levies in effect and they _ outfit to be corrected. The condition links directly with g my recollection of old Noah. Noah a went out and spent his money with g no thought of the future. The pres- B ant administration went out and bar- fa rowed tinder one excuse or another m until the national debt is the great- ? est in the 001100** history?without . any thought of the future. They a built privies and raked leaves and ( constructed unneeded buildings and spent billions {n every direction. It strikes me that since the ad- a ministration has emulated old Noah, U it ought to wake up and take the tl advice of some sound thinkers such as Senator Byrd. The taxes must S be paid?yes, in undreamed of amounts?but the taxpayers in the b country have a right to demand t some system in that taxation. , Some of these days an understand- 1 ing of the sour nature of these taxes a will permeate down to the last per- t son who eats. The politicians have tl been getting away with the grand- C est deceit by using hidden taxes? g taxes you have paid as a part of the c price of your purchase?for years. I t think the end is nst far off. I firmly I believe that the tremendous taxes c we are going to have to pay t . .^< ,1 we piayed like Noah, the farm hand, i will teach a lot of folks a lesau i. 1 -^-Speaking of Sports Night Baseball May Threaten Game's Future By ROBERT McSHANE [Released by Waters Newspaper Union.) ATHETHER or not night baseball * will continue Its present re isrkable growth depends not so tuch upon club owners and man gers as upon the millions of fans bo foot the bills. And that, in this instance, is jast <o had. Today's baseball addict is very rely to declare himself in favor of xrturnal encounters. He can't be amed for that. A majority of fans id it impossible to see more than le or two afternoon games each eek. Work interferes constantly ith lighter pursuits. But night imes take care of that matter, tter his evening dinner, the Bleacb ' Baron can strike out for the ill park, settle down with a bottle pop and, with time out for a few >arse yells, take things' easy. That's line for the present day fan hat indirectly he's brightening tho tare of some other sport. Every Idltioaal dollar the baseball mag ite takes in through night games eans a doable loss in days to ime. Ho is slamming the doer in e face of the one group that helps sep baseball the sport it is today. 1st group is composed of the mil >ns of small boys of the nation, key can't bay tickets today?they ? a whole nine innings only when ie Knot Hole Gang is admitted ee of charge. ids May Lose Interest But every year a new generation ! ticket buyers comes of age. In ie past they have grown up with ie sport. The kids often know lore about league standings, bat ng averages and various standings lan do the adults. However, if tore and more games are played t night, the kids won't bo at the all park to see them. The game ill lose its familiarity and some ling will be found to replace it? ymething that has a doner appeal. Net so many big leagne managers ad elnb owners are whole hearted isetpies ef night baseball. They ml that artlleial lights are Just that ind of a stimulus. Right now it's eubtfnl that they can do much bent It. The trend Is toward the sasdas. The bright lights seem to e as prodtable at a baseball perk a In a nightclub, and very few ef he parse holders are trilling to kick dollar la the teeth. Edward G. Barrow of the Yankees ? a staunch advocate of things as hey are. He echoed the opinions f quite a few contemporaries when ie stated not so long ago that night lasebali is a thing of evil. He die loeed of it in one sweeping state nent: Jate Receipts Up "Gate receipts for baseball have ncreased 100 per cent in 30 years, low, why go in for any new-fangled leas with those figures staring at ou in the record books? We used 0 think a crowd of 28,000 eras a urnaway gang. Now, on our good ays, if ws don't have <0,000 we hink something's wrong. The game as prospered by its regularity and ignity. Why these new ideas?" Barrow, when he made those re marks, wasn't thinking of the Yanks lone. He had every big league club 1 mind. Larry MaerhaU, the maa whs tarted the erase for night games, aw wants ta tarn aa the dimmers, la's fearfal where sight baseball lay lead. The Dodgers' manager eetared Out the Browns made a listake hi doubling the a seal at rtment of sight games. Be stated mphatiealty that he'd never ag rees el mere than seven night tteadaace, the backbone of the erne. For the sake of baseball's future, t is to be hoped that all executives rill bear in mind the fact that day Ight attendance is the lifeblood of be game. iport Shorts Paul Derringer and Ernie Lorn ardi form one of baseball's heavi st batteries. Their oombined /eight is MO pounds . . . Tarzan 'aykrr, line coach at Marquette, Jways wears a flower. He keeps it resh in a small vase that fits into he buttonhole of his lapel . . . Jraig Wood wanted to be a civil en gineer aa a youngster. He went to ollege for one year, then quit to ake a pro golf Job at Lexington, [y. . . . Mule Dowell, former Cht ago Cardinals' fullback, is athletic lirector at Texas Tech . . . Elea nor Holm still holds 10 of the 4 A A. U. backstrokp records. General i n^nJohnson I%Jayr:[ I Wuttaftoa, D. C. LESSON FOB V. S. Most of the lessons of the war are too obscure to learn. The fall of France can't be explained. Gossip filtering back indicates s stench to heaven. I We are already officially Warned for not doing something that we were somehow supposed to be obliged to do. Who obligated us? Mr Bullitt did say openly that we wouldn't be in it at the beginning but would be in the end. The end came too soon for France. If she relied cm Mr. Bullitt, she missed the The lesson from France is not clear enough to learn bat there is one lesson from the whole bloody mess thst simply shrieks. No na tion can rely on any other and cer tainly not we on the British navy, or Latin America, or on anything but our own strength. France created the "cordon sani taire"?the ring of little nations like Poland, Czechoslovakia and Ruma nia, to keep Germany captive, flba relied on them and they an her. She relied an the British navy. Britain relied on the French army. When Hitler began to show strength, France wanted to stop him. Britain wouldn't play. When MunHni hi jacked Ethiopia, Britain wanted to stop .him. France wouldn't play. 9 Both let Hitler and Mussolini build up the strength to ravage the French and British reliance on little nations in the "cordon sanitaire" and their reliance on Britain and Francs. ? ? ? One by one they fell. Britain and France were helpless or unwilling to stop it. They are responsible lor the threat to us today btisuaa. finally, came the case of Poland. Britain and France at last wars drowsily preparing. But neither was remotely ready. Nevertheless they shoved Poland into the gone. The case was weak. Danzig was a Ger man city. The Polish corridor was a monstrosity Further more, worst of all. Hitler wanted no war in the west, he was headed east and southeast France, under British pressure, joined in declaring war when Hitter marched. It was one of the greatest and most stupid blunders is History ?if not the yery greatest. It forced Hitler to turn to the west. The re sult already has been the destruc tion of six small neutral nations? and the French empire. It terri bly threatens the British empire. It threatens us. Recriminations have already be gun. We hear that France didn't want to go to war and Britain forced her?that the French government didn't want to abandon tire defensive nn4 plunge Into the ftiiittnmi Bd> gian pocket?that Britain forced it and didn't support it. The facts aren't dear. But the blunders are. They shout their lessons to us. Don't start anything you can't finish. Get fully ready before you start slapping down ears. Don't rely on anybody but yourself. Don't push other na tions into warlike positions to de fend yourself. ? ? ? In thii blundering diversion of Hitler to our direction when he might have gone eastward to wear himself out in battle with the boar of Russia, we are not hi sm sloes Wo supported end encouraged it moral ly. Part of the argument to bring Prance in eras that only if aha were in war could aha bo sufficiently unified and mobilized for war, and that if she did get in she would have time to get ready afterward. Exactly that is beiag said to as in this country today. There lo anoth er way to say it It to "Get a dic tator." Step by muddled step ere have fol lowed blundering European war pol- _ iciee. We are still following them. Our two new war qabinet members believe in doing that. That to why they were chosen. Our greatest need to new and competent leaderehlp > before it to too late. ? ? ? WANTED* A PRODUCTION KAN Industrial mobilization lent Just madly appropriate billions Billions are necessary, but suc cess is threatened if they ase Uuuwn away. Contracts with suppliers are necessary, but they are no good if they don't result in swift and ac ceptable production so regulated that all the separate parts coma to the assembly line properly timed to all other deliveries and with no spoiled work or parts that do not fit. I doubt if we are giving enough attention to either one of theea prin ciples. There is too much ballyhoo ? about billions. It tends to pacify tha 3 demand of the people for drive and