The Durant news. (Durant, Miss.) 1882-1985, 1940-01-04
The Year Of The Locust

One of the most eventful decades IN mooerh ms
tory has ended. And this nation enters a new decaue
during which, unless all signs are wrong, its people
must face and grapple with problems, issues and respon-
sibilties of the most far-reaching character.
The 1905 will be known to the historians of the
future as the year of one of the greatest and longest
depressions this or any other nation ever experienced.
They will be known as years OF experiment, OF trial anu
error, of the weighing of our old values and our ola
traditions. And they will be known too, as years IN
which the democratic process was consistently attacked
by some of those who called themselves it's friends, as
well as by those who were its frankly avowed enemies.
From the international point of view, the tragic
sos came to a cynically fitting end in that most CHASTITY
and unnecessary of events war which embraces
much of the world. In nation after nation the arts OF
peace have of necessity been put aside, to the end that
war may prosecute to the utmost. AND war
destroys more than men and materials and machines
and economies and states. 1t destroys those essenuai
liberties for which men have fought and died IN holy
causes ever since the world we know began, It destroys
those spiritual values which are at the root OF all artas-
TIC cultural and humanitarian achievement. 1t mas
been truly said in modern war there can pc no vlcpors-
there are only the vanquished. 1t is an ironic common
tary on the times in which we live that those nations
which are fighting this war in the name of threatened
democracy, have been forced to use the methods OF the
dictators in order to meet the enemy on its own totall-
tartan terms.
The greatest blessing which this nation possesses to-
day is physical remoteness from the conflict abroad.
1udL Is a pOSitlOA uJOyOu w nv OSASA VI WV 49,
major powers. There is profound wisdom in the attl-
tude of the great mai of the America people who
say, in effective AN keep out Of war-and we Will
keep out Of war" There is no war party in this country
no responsible statesman urges our participation. We
ccM ~. fec, l26p an aLid.1e theNkf-fno9S that th'r Is
so. Never before has it been SO important that we
Americans keep our heads, in order. that we may also
keep our liberties. For should this country become
involved in war, democracy would vanish here, as swift
1y and as surely as it has vanished abroad.
r,.n;,~ - o,. our ;+orno1 nrohlor,u om~ +auk
is great. The gratifying Improvement that has recently
taken place throughout our economic structure must not
be allowed to blind us to the unpleasant truth that not
one of those issue which we were forced to face at the
start OF the depression has. been solved. Most of them
have become more complicated and difficult. The ma
tional debt, despite the heaviest tax load in our peace
time history, has nearly trebled in the past decade and
will soon reach the present legal limit of $45, 0O0, 0OO, 900.
The Immense expenditures for relief continue, even
though business has much improved and unemployment
has consequently been reduced The agricultural sit
retion, in spite of q long series of extremely expensive
farm relief measures, remains tangled and unsatis-
factory.
On top of that, there is still = strong clique high
ia government whose attitude toward business can be
described only as strongly inirfcai. This is the group
which backs any and, all measures suvs assigne a. to put
lily taxed enterprise-which stays awake nights think
ing up new ways Of saddling business with restrictive
laws and punitive class taxes-which encourages labor
excuses to the full--and which does all in its power
to prevent stability, and to keep chaos and uncertainty
in the saddle 1t is a remarkable tribute to the courage
and staying power Of American business that it has
managed to progress as much as it has when confronted
with such ~handicaps.
Summing up, we have plenty to do at home during,
the years that stretch ahead. The current Congress and
those which follow have their work cut out for them
but satisfactory results will be secured only if the people
as a whole are awake and watchful, are conscious of
their needs, are deeply aware of their American heri
tage and way of life. For in spite of the unproven
claims of extremists, our only real progress has come
from productive, employing industry, working under the
American system of free enterprise which brought us
from a minor power to a world power in a century and
a half.
Here in America we have all that is needed to
bring a greater prosperity than we have ever known
the industries, the men, the resources. But unless we main
tain our basic liberties, material blessings mean nothing.
Discriminatory Taxes: The Farmers Problem
The statement by Oscar Johnston, president of the
National Cotton Council, that taxes which discriminate
against cottonseed oil products are primarily the far
mers problem" hit the nail on the head, although for