Henderson daily dispatch., 1939-04-11
Issues of 1910 Campaign
Are Slow In Developing
Continued From Page One)


eight estimable gentlemen are all
strong in their own right, closely
enough identified with various poll
teal groups to insure them strong
support from other sources, but for
color they are in no part chameleons.
Go down the list of issues there
are plenty of hardy perennials; there
are few of comparatively recent
origin; but there isn't one on which
a finger can be put as of today with
the remark, ''there's the big ISSUE y
Nos. 9 and 10 really haven't the
slightest business being in the list.
Every one will concede that former
Governor Gardner ought not to be a
subject Of controversy eight years
after quitting the executive mansion,
but it's dollars to doughnuts that
somewhere along the line his name
will be rung in.
Everybody will also concede that
the national administration Cor New
DeaD ought not to be paramount in
North Carolina campaign, but there
are dozens of competent observers
and political prophets who will tell
you that, in one shape or another, it
is quite likely to be not only an is
sue but THE issue. They bark back
to the memorable year of 1923 when
AL Smith and resulting complications
practically obscured all else on the
Tar Heel political scene.
Nobody can say how it will be in
jected, but injected it will be and
you may lay to that, not only in the
general election but in the May pri-
mary.
AS for the other possibilities as is
sues, it might not be amiss to touch
on each of them briefly.
CD If the primary came after the
end of the next fiscal year, diver
sion would either be the outstand-
ing issue or else it would be none at
all; but as matters now stand it has
fair chance to be highly impor-
tant. This is SO because if there were
actual diversion before the primary
(Which there now can't be) there
would be bowls of bloody murder
from all sections. If the chance for
diversion had passed without any,
than nobody could blow it up to hold
even politicians hot air. With &C
tual diversion still problematical,
there is a chance an able candidate
like j. M. Broughton can make real
Roadway with opposition to diver
sion and all its works.
(2) Homestead exemption has
never had a real tryout as a State
issue, as it was not until the 1896
general election that authority to
grant any exemptions at all was
given the legislature. Since then two
general assemblies, over violent pro-
test of a vocative minority, have com
pletely ignored this permissive
amendment. Gregg Cherry, chairman
of the Democratic State Executive
Committee, warned on the floor at
this session that no candidate could
successfully oppose exemptions, but
| it has never been tried out and it
remains to be seen how potent it is
and who may grab it to advantage.
(4) Extension of ad valOrem tax
alton for State purposes is perhaps
as important, as many other issues,
but it is doubtful if it can be grasp
ed with enough understanding by
the average voter to make it effec-
tive, because it is difficult to make
the a. v. comprehend that taxation
of intangibles by the State is, in fact,
in direct contradiction to North Car
olina's oft-repeated boast that it
| leVieS no ad ValOrem tax for State
use.
60 Spending may become an is
sue if there should be any real and
violent wave of economy throughout
the State, but this isn't probable. OF
course, the ''too many people spend
ing too much money in Raleigh" cry
will be just another way of putting
Tom Cooper's attacks on the era
leigh gang" and there will be nu-
merous appeals to the voters to stop
this Capitalization Of power in Ra-
leigh boards, bureaus and agencies.
co The sales tax, around which
the fiercest fighting of 1886 ragged,
will unquestionably be sought as a
real issue by whomever the anti-ad-
| ministrationists put forward as their
candidate Whether or not it will
have anything even remotely re-
sembling the appeal of 1886 is high
" problematical, although straight
away ''sales tax against no sales tax
! referendum in North Carolina would
likely see the levy beaten by an
overwhelming majority. It's getting
700 far from enactment time, how
! ever. The income tax, for example,
was once a. tremendous issue in
North Carolina-now look at it. The
same thing seems to be happening