Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1933-04-28
FRANK PARkER
STOCBRlD6E

DIRIGIBLES important
l hope the fate of the airshir
Akron will not throw Congress
into such a panic that it will refuse
to appropriate funds for further
development Of lighter-than-ai1
craft.
l have long believed that the
dirigible is a far more valuable mil
itary arm than the airplane. W.
don't stop building airplanes be-
cause scores of brave young officers
are killed every year when military
planes crash. The safety of the
nation is more important than a
few lives.
The time will come when the
airship will be perfected to the
point where it will be the principa]
means of passenger transportation
Jail over the world. Of that l am
firmly convinced. But no private
concern can spend the money nee
essary to the perfection of the diri-
gible. 1t must be done by Govern
ments, and the expenditure justified
by the airship's value as a means Of
national defense.
ARMY too expensive
A high officer of the Army ha.
had the courage to tell the worio
that the Army costs too much.
Major General johnson Hagood
commander the Eighth Corps Area
says: "It takes three hundred mil
lion dollars a year to run the Army
under its present organization. W.
can get a better organization fol
less
That is a slap in the faceHfor the
bureaucrats who have piled up fa1
Office jobs in Washington for Army
officers who ought to be out in the
field or working at something else
There is nothing the Uniteo
States needs less than it needs ar
expensive Army. General Hagooc
admits hat he has tiwce as many
staff officers and clerks as he needs
but he can't get rid of them under
the present set-up.
The danger of a large standing
Army is that its officers too often
are inclined to forget that they are
the servants Of the people and tc
assume hat they are the masters.
GOVERNOR right man
Frank Murphy, Mayor Of Detroit
who is going to the Philippines as
Governor-G General is one of the pro-
gressive young men who are COM
ing to the front in Americas public
affairs.
He is not going to have an easy
LOB as successor to Theodore Roose-
welt, Jr., in Manila. But Frank
Murphy doesn't care about easy
Jobs.
Congress has voted to give the
Philippines independence, if they
behave themselves, in the course of
a dozen years Or 50. The Filipinos
themselves are divided on, the ques-
ton whether or not they want in
dependence. Some are afraid that
once Uncle Sam removes his pro-
tecting arm Japan will jump in and
grab off the islands. The new Gov
ernor- General will have a lot of
conflicting ideas to reconcile, and
it is not at all impossible that he
may have to keep a pretty close eye
on Japan himself.
MINISTER a woman
Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen is to be
United States Minister to the Court
of Denmark. My first reaction to
that news is that it is Denmark S
gain and Americas loss.
There is no particular glory at
tached to being the diplomatic re-
preventative of American to the
minor governments of Europe.
President Hoover once said to me:
ANY. man who is a good enough
politician to be a county chairman,
knows how to wear evening clothes
and has good table manners, is
qualified to be Minister to most
European countries"
Mrs. Owen, however, will reflect
glory upon her new job, and will
carry herself in a way to reflect
credit upon the women of America,
thus honored by this first selection
of one of their sex to A high drplo-