Newspapers / The State’s Voice (Dunn, … / July 1, 1935, edition 1 / Page 4
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THE STATE'S VOICE O. J. PETERSON, Editor and Publisher Published Twice-a-Month at Dunn, N. C. FOR STATE WIDE CIRCULATION SUBSCRIPTION PRICE: $1 a Year; 3 Years $2.25 Entered at the Postoffice at Dunn, North Carolina?— as Second-Class Matter. Subsidizing A Merchant Marine Supreme Folly Our front-page article and the Eccles article indicate how thoroughly the editor of the Voice is in accord with the administration in much of its program. On this page we are expressing a different sentiment with respect to other parts. Here our disapproval of any merchant marine ' subsidy is registered. As generally conceded now by men who have given- the question any thought, the only way one nation can trade with another is by exchang ing goods and services .for goods, or services^ The The United States wishes-to -sell more abroad than is now being sold. To do so means-that she must- accept more foreign goods or more service^ If I had only ten dollars to pay for wheat, of which you have a plenty you hold at a dollar a hnshd delivered at mv door, can you think of some way by which I may be enabled to buy more of your wheat than ten bushels? Easy; pay me in additional wheat for transporting it myself. Well, if we desire to sell England more goods than we are willing to take pay for in goods, why isn t it as,sensible to let her pay for more of the goods of which we have an abundance by doing the carrying? , In the case of the ten bushels of vfrheat, woman t you be a fool to put yourself to considerabe ex pense in cash to provide a conveyance rather than give me an extra bushel to go for it? But some people cry out about war and this and that. If war comes in Europe, the best thing America can do is to hjeep her ships at home. ^ It cost the country billions to maintain the “right” to carry contrabands of war to the Allies. It would have been the same if only food, had been carried, since armies “travel on their stomachs,” and. fur nishing food w'ould be playing- any but a neutral part. The ocean will not be safe if another great war occurs, and it's being taken for granted that America will have sense enough to stay out of it,, a wise America will -then least want a merchant marine. We can get along without foreign merch andise just about as long as the warring countries could wage wrar without our commodities. And when there is no war-it is more sensible to pay carrying charges in goods than in castw.^ The Government Defaulting Its Responsibility It is evident to any casual observer that , drink ing and drunkenness haye largely increased in 'North Carolina the pa.;t year. The constant gab about liquor, of course, has had the effect of commending it as something desirable, and drink ing as a wrongfuily denied privilege. If en forcement in this state had been perfect, prior to the repeal agitation, it is certain that it would have broken down under existing circumstances. But enforcement was not perfect, nor any where near it, before all the ya-ya-yaing about liquor, with its inevitable acceptance as an en dorsement of drink by even such men as John ■Sprunt Hill and others who sincerely desire tem perance. And the blame was not so much with police officers, either, federal cr state, but with the' legislators of thg state and the higher auth orities at Washington. Just suppose both govern ments required, as the federal government now required, sworn reports from all dealers in su gar, molasses, brans, malts, and other materials used in making liquor .with the names of buyers of unusual quantities with dates and amounts of purchases, and these had been turned over to the police officers, as is the practice now with the federal administration—wouldn't that have dou bled, the-effectiveness of enforcement efforts? And remember, the legislature could readily make the sale of materials, to those once convicted of blockading a violation of the liw punishable by fine or imprisonment. But the legislators, instead of fortifying the law, were gabbing about fts constant violation, and many of them violating it in essence, if not in letter, by patronizing law-breakers. It is, in deed, evident that few drinkers have faded; to •violate the letter of the law, for tta^partaBon is a very comprehensive term. It is simple truth to say that there hae«ever been; a sane and earn* • est attempt to make the pnddbitionlaw effective^ r, and the. responsibility for ^e- course that* now _ cest$ . upon the state should -weigh heavify oh the consciences of those, whdhave -failed to ’•fortify the law to which they so long, for policy s sake perhaps, professed loyalty. Elsewhere in this paper we have paid our re spects to the. messy and messier-growing abom inations which the legislature in its closing days imposed upon the state. Here I desire to say positively that the Federal government has not only defaulted in its obligations to protect the “dry” states from liquor from other states* but is encouraging the violation of the state law by hundreds of citizens by licensing them to sell li quors. While it was proclaimed for years that pro hibition was unenforceable arid that reason was assigned by many for their support of the repeal of the eighteenth amendment, the same people deliberately voted for the substitute amendment which definitely obligates the federal government to protect this state from importations of liquor from wet territory. The government has as de liberately defaulted that obligation. Moreover, it is permitting the advertising, in most attractive forms, of alcoholic liquorsl in magazines and journals that pass through the mails from other states in North Carolina. It is good to see, however, that_a bill has been introduced in each branch of congress which, if enatfed would make such advertising illegal. In the meantime, though, the demoralization of the people of North Carolina will be complete, if the debauchment of them shouldn’t be. Those who want liquor to flow freely, and many oi tnose wno ao not out jcaiuoauj temperance, have acted so^asininely that it will take a generation to overcome the impetus given liquor guzzling. The last legislature had an opportunity to pass a real enforcement law. Dozens of citizens of the state have already been murdered or killed in “accidents” due to liquor since that opportunity passed. Yet if called in special session, those same legislaors who declined to help make North Caro linians sober, sane and safe, would accept the further demoralization due to their asininity as a reason to repeal every vestige of the Turlington Act. I Wonder If Yon Belie ve Thi* We hope it will become an established condi tion that ao. party in'a war can collect a cent of money from the conquered. In the, first place no defeated country can pay; si^ch .sums as those imposed upon Germany,, and i Fit could and should it would cause more disruption in world commerce than it would benefit, the payee. If the European countries that owe America those billions should pay them tomorrow, it wouldn’t do America as a whole the equivalent of a pound of cotton goods. It would' inflate the American currency, even if paid in gold, an im possibility. just several times as much as printing money to pay the soldiers' bonus. Yet all that money wouldn't mean that Americans could or would buy as much as a pocket handkerchief more from other countries than we now Buy. We are already paying for all the foreign goods we want with our goods and could buy plenty more if we were only willing to do so. Therefore, Americans would keep right on producing and using its own goods and paying for what we need from abroad with the excess of our goods. To quit producing and buy from abroad as long as the money lasted would be to destroy our own businesses, and to ■force those who have fio share in the debts due to go upon the relief roll. Very little use does one have for money that doesn’t buy anything except , what is already in the family’s oossession, and that would double the price that the memDers of the family have been paying for each other’s goods. _ Yet, while the payment of those debts would do America no good, taken as a whole, the pay ment would ruin the debtor countries, and fear fully derange the commerce of the whole world. Well, if you haven't sense enough to see that the above is true,. I have said enough; if you have not much sense, I have said enough. But let us hope that Italy,, if she does go to war with Ethiopia, will get whipped, or if she wins and tries to impose an immense forfeiture upon the cdd kingdom that it will do just as Germany has done about the war debts and just as England and France are doing about the mon ey, or goods at three prices, borrowed from us. However^ Italy, or any county that needs to buy more than it can#^H,; can'make use '.of. money from another- Country. Fof instance, if. Anjerca owed Italy a billion dollars, tiie' money,: if .paid? would eotne right back; to us/probi^ly. tqr goods, ofr *tb other countries, But ih- caae^Q^ a .country. -«6W matt* we very men who are most, insistent for he payment of the debts seem most afraid of inflation—and Euro'pe owes us twice as much money as there is in the whole country now and the most of that stowed away in bank vaults. What an inflation payment would mean! Lobbyists Reap Rich Harvest The legislature was profitable to at least one group. The lobbyists reaped a rich harvest. The 170 members of the general assembly received as compensations for their services somethin^ Hpe $102,000; the lobbyists were paid, according to sworn reports, over $106,000. Some legal firms received more from several interests represented by them, for intermittent attention to the in terests of their employers, than the most hard working men in the state could make in seven or eigjit years of hard labor. The money paid out to lobbyists would have paid the salaries of about 150 of the best teachers in the state at the $720 maximum salary prevailing last year. Those 150 teachers were responsible for the mental, moral, and physical well-being of about 5,000 future citizens of the state, and some of them could swallow, from the intellectual standpoint, some of the lobbyists who received extravagant pay for their attempt^ to influence legislation in be half of their employers. il 1 lei 11 WUIUU btJCIU I'littt ■ me got precious little for their expenditures, since legis lation during the last session was a mere gamble, the final, result sometimes depending upon some member’s applying- the clincher before the body would have time to change again. On the whole, however, the big fellows got off mighty light, as it - ip generally admitted that the sales tax is the biggest item in the whole general revenue scheme, and that tax soaks even the buyer of a peck of meal or^a pound of sow belly. The liquorites got much at the last, moment, but one would be presumptuous to attribute the craze of those last days to the activity or the money of liquor interests, the result being evidently a con sequence of a psychological state that was at tributable to four months of perpetual harping on liquor; The liquor interests really need no lob byists. when the legislature is in session. The t6o general disregard of the laws of the State ■by the legislator^: themselves and the constant harping upon the prevalence of drinking through out the domain is' enough tb convince even the soberest legislator that it makes liktle difference what happens—as matters, couldn’t be worse. Candidate McRae Makes A Reasonable Request '• Attorney Jnoi A. McRae, of Charlotte, an nounced candidate for the Democratic nomina tion for governor, is making what must be con-, ceded to be a most reasonable request.' Mr. Mc Rae has not had the opportunity that other can didates have had to become acquainted with peo ple in all sections of the state, but that is no in dication at all of the.degree of his merits as a man or of his own platform as a caandidate. In deed, it is, rather unfortunate that so often our high officials are selected from the members of a small coterie, who have had, through one means or another, the opportunity to familarize the peo ple with their names and faces, while hundreds as worthy who have not worked in fjie light of pub' liicity for years are at an utter loss if they an nounce their candidacy for office. It is not always the biggest fish in the pool that is oftenest seen flirting about on the surface of the water. In vew of such considerations, Mr. McRae lS simply asking the people to go slowly in decidng for whom to vote for governor till they have heard all the candidates, learned their varioius business and professional associations, judged o the merits of the platform of each, and become otherwise acquainted with the men, their capabi 1 ties, and their attitudes. . It is a, fair priposition. But it takes time 1° a candidate to introduce himself to the people o all parts of the state. Fortunately, however, there is almost a full year before the date of the prl mary, and Mr. McRae and other candidates whose names are not household,; words through fo11^ political activities, should be given much of t i time to introduce themselves to the people. 1 e are just as fine horses for. sale that you have never heard of as are those whose worth you have an opportunity to rate. It is only common-sen for. you to look the stranger nags over and to W. their paces ahd pulling power- before you b especially. when... there is no rush to make y° ^ selection. y .. ‘ ... c •• r, A* for our party We^sl^H be gl^10,8^, Mj^ae visfie DUnhAmd-to -hear,him■;speafc; ■tr see tta. Candidate McRae."That name ©*7*- ■ :i£ onto that has- ignored; imth*® • Fear region. . •*•»•••
The State’s Voice (Dunn, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
July 1, 1935, edition 1
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