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Qlbe rHi^hlnttiis jUUruitian
Published every Thursday by The Franklin Press
At Franklin, North Carolina
Telephone No. 24
VOL. LXI Number twenty-four
WEIMAR JONES Editor -Publisher
Entered at the Post Office, Franklin, N. C., as second class matter
Democracy, Yesterday and Today
"... American democracy as practiced today is
lar' from the democracy conceived by Jefferson and
I'ayne."
( )f the many interesting observations in Miss
Nancy Jones' letter, published elsewhere on this
page, none is more penetrating than the one quoted
above. For much of our present-dav misunderstand
ing and confusion grows out of the failure of our
leaders, as well as the people themselves, to appre
ciate the great changes that have occurred since
the adoption of the Constitution of the United
States. Radical changes have been written into the
law ol the land, and even greater changes have
occurred in our thinking.
* * *
What the founding' fathers set up was a repre
sentative government : they had no intention of
establishing a democracy. Slost of them, including
Washington, were inclined to be suspicious of the
people; they sought to protect the nation against
popular excesses, and to lodge the actual power of
administration in the hands of the educated ? which,
in that day, usually meant the well-to-do.
Jefferson and his followers, it is true, were demo
crats. though rather mild in their views as com
pared with today's conception of democracy. It is
interesting to note, too, that they called themselves
''republicans", because the word "democracy"
was politically unpopular at that time: and Jeffer
son's election as president, even as one who be
lieved in a republic, was bemoaned by many honest,
patriotic Americans as a national calamity.
Jefferson himself was in France at the time the
constitution was drafted, and he studied the docu
ment with considerable skepticism : it was conserva
tive indeed as compared with his Declaration of
Independence. He was so doubtful about it. in fact,
that he demanded ? and obtained ? the Bill of
Rights. Thus the Constitution, with the Bill of
Nights incorporated into it, represented a compro
mise. Certain rights of the individual were guarded
by the Bill of Rights, but the administration of the
government was carefully put well out of reach of
the people.
? * *
The founding fathers, too, had in mind a gov
ernment tinder which the people were not expected
to pass upon issues; instead, it was to he a repre
sentative- government, with the people given the
right to choose their representatives, hut with the
responsibility for deciding policies placed in the
hands of a few men the people had chosen to act
in their behalf. That conception is illustrated in the
way the electoral college, as originally set up, was
designed to work. It was not intended that the
people should be given a choice between candidates
for the presidency: the people were expected mere
ly to choose electors, who, in turn, would meet and.
after deliberation, select a man to serve as chief
executive of the nation.
* * *
Since that day, the whole form of our govern
ment has been greatly altered, while our thinking
has moved far to the left. N'or ? contrary to the
views of some ? did all the changes come with the
New Deal. While more changes, perhaps, were
crowded into the 13 years of Roosevelt'^ adminis
trations than any similar period, the New .Deal era
merely climaxed and hastened a movement that
started with Jefferson's election, 146 years ago.
and has continued ever since.
Andrew Jackson took the nation a long way to
ward democracy. The Civil War destroyed the doc
trine of state's rights. And, in more recent ? but
pre- New Heal ? years, the tendency has been illu
strated in the popular election of United States
senators, once named bv the general assemblies,
and by the institution of party primaries in place
of the old convention method, under which a few
representatives selected the candidates.
* * *
Today, therefore, if we want to understand what
is happening in America, we should l>ear in mind
that we have neither a strictly representative gov
ernment nor a pure democracy, but stand some
where between those two extremes.
We cannot understand the America of 1946 In
going back to the founding fathers and stopping
there ; we can understand it only if we view it in
the light of what happened at the constitutional
convention of 1787. pliu? what has been happening
down through the years since. For American gov
ernment has been what it had to be to survive ? a
growing thing, constantly changing to meet chang
ing conditions.
"Thert U retribution lo hUtory".? Z?bulon B. Vane#.
LETTERS
LABOR AND DEMOCRACY
To the Editors of The Clayton Tribune and The Franklin
Press, and Mr. J. Q. West:
I first read the letter captioned "Danger Ahead", when it
was reprinted in The Franklin Press at the suggestion of Mr.
W. C. Zickgraf. with the notation that it "contains food lor
thought". It does indeed contain food for thought. More than
that, 1 it points out with glaring certainty that it is high time
that people do think, and fairly and democratically.
I do not, at the outset, agree with Mr. West? but I think
his agonized, pessimistic views voice the thoughts not only of
Mr. J, Q. West, but also, all too often, of Mr. J. Q. Public.
Graft, grab and selfishness are the order of the day, but they
had their beginning not so recently as V-J Day. There is strife
and dissension among us, but to accept this situation as in
soluble, or to blame it exclusively on labor and the recently
soaring number and propensity of strikes, is to deny the pre
cept that a democracy can ever exist as a democracy.
Apparently Mr. West has a conception of the relation of.
labor to corporations as a long-standing attempt of the work
ing man to take away from the owner of a business, a "cap
italist", money which rightfully belongs to him and to which
the worker has no right. The latter, through organization, has
at last found a voice, and many people object to the noise
that he is making with it right at the - moment. The fact that
this group of people known as "labor" are asking for higher
wages and better working conditions, and are withholding
their services until these things are granted to them, seems to
constitute a threat to our very system of government; not only
that, but through some flight of fancy Mr. West puts labor in
unexplained control of the corporations, and thereby has the
country heading for anarchy, civil war, and communism.
I fail, I am afraid, to grasp the significance of these fears.
In the first place, if stock in the corporations, against which
labor is striking, were owned by laborers, I do not believe that
under the existing programs in these corporations it would
make a lot of difference in the management of the companies.
It is a long and expensive process to buy up all the voting
stock in a large corporation. Stockholders are seldom in close
enough contact with the executives of large corporations, and
seldom appear at stockholders' meetings in large enough
numbers, to carry much weight in changing its policies.
Neither is the amount of money spent in stockholders' divi
dends or raises in workers' salaries such a tremendous per
centage of net profits as the public ? to which group the labor
er belongs ? is led to believe. Bonuses are paid to executives.
Tremendous advertising campaigns clutter the airways and
periodicals ad nauseum. Cutthroat competition at enormous
expense is carried out to eliminate competitors, stabilize prices,
and allocate market areas. Research, the results of which are
all too often withheld because a new product would antiquate
equipment installed for production of the product now on the
market ? all these things comprise a much larger percentage
of the bills which the consumer is footing.
The right of labor to strike Is an essential part of our demo
cratic system, as inalienable and necessary a part of it as the
freedom of the press, without which neither Mr. West nor I
would be able to print these letters. Through misinformation,
labor and communism have become closely connected bugbears
which are supposed to be threatening American democracy. I
hold that American democracy as practiced today is far from
the democracy conceived by Jefferson and Payne, fought for
by Washington and his barefoot soldiers. I hold that democ
racy has far more serious threats than the so-called Labor
front. I agree that Mr. Stalin "sits on the side lines, grinning,
watching ... our effort to live with ourselves." He can well
afford to grin ? but he grins at what we are doing to our
democracy, the things preached by our constitution and
Declaration of Independence while we practice exactly the op
posite ideas, the laughable inefficiency of our statesmen and
our politicians and our own stupidity and indifference at
election time.
in me same issue 01 ine r-ress as mr. wests puunsneu
letter, appeared an editorial which makes the statement that
"If politics is rotten, the fault is ours," and two three-column
advertisements of the platforms of opposing candidates for
a seat in congress. Both of these fine politicians arraign the
public on platforms consisting of carefully boiled-down local
affairs; neither of them mentions one national issue. It is
these national issues which drive Mr. West and me to write
these "agonized articles". Why, in a democracy, can national
politicians run on such half-baked, diswater problems as the
Blue Ridge parkway and the Kephart fish hatchery and not
have the public rise up in protest? It is all very fine to have
someone assur# us that it will be brought to the attention
of congress that Western North Carolina needs things to draw
the tourist business, but what about the Case bill? What
about the National Housing act? What about fascism in Franco
Spain? What about food for the starving? What about the
atomic inventions?
I suggest that we go one step farther than an open-eyed
realization that we are headed for anarchy, civil war, or what
ever it is we are so hopelessly headed for. I suggest that the
only way for a democracy to be run is for the PEOPLE, in
cluding every individual who is old enough to vote, to insist
that he know what he is voting for. The local issues, on which
the groundwork for grab, graft and selfishness are so fre
quently laid, must become secondary until the tremendous job
of settling our post-war difficulties is taken care of, by capable
men, men who we insist run upon honest, clear, specific and
comprehensive platforms. I suggest that we give much thought
to the borderline between the authority of a president to de
clare a national emergency which so many of his policies
have denied, and the authority of a fascist dictator; and I
suggest that we let Mr. Truman know what we think.
If Mr. West wants to see some good in his so-called labor
wars, let him go back and read the Constitution of the United
States.
?NANCY JONES
New York, N. Y.
June 3, 1946.
Others' Opinions
ROSS EAKIN
Major J. Ross Eakin devoted more than half of his adult life
to the conservation and development of one of his country's
greatest natural resources, Its national parks. More than a year
ago 111 health forced him to retire as superintendent of the
Great Smoky Mountains National Park, a post to which he
had given his whole energy from the time this great recrea
tion area had begun to assume the form envisaged by Its
founders.
The devotion of this public servant to a trust of Immense
responsibility sustained every attack but failing health. He
labored to build the Park to the point of preeminence which
it has now attained ? the most popular National park In Amer
ica. Those who may have differed with him in methods never
questioned his dedication of purpose. When Major Eakin came
under a spoilsman's attack from Senator McKellar of Tennes
see in 1941 this newspaper and many others defended the Park
superintendent's integrity and exulted In his personal exonera
tion.
The towering park in the Smokies Is its own evidence of the
tireless labors of a man who was ever ambitious for Its advance
ment. Ross Eakin was possessed of the vision needed to trans
form the last real wilderness of eastern America Into a place
of recreation and aesthetic satisfaction for his countrymen.
The people of North Carolina will join with those of Tennes
see In mourning the passing of a gentleman and a public serv
ant who worked with them to fulfill a dream at last come to
happy realization.? Ashe vllle Citizen/
Build your church within your heart and take it with you
everywhere.? Anon.
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