Do We Need to Pass Law When Common Sense Is Handling the Problem? 1949

“Shooting Blanks at Nothing” from the Greensboro Daily News, reprinted on the editorial page of the Feb. 23, 1949 issue of The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C. The bill being criticized was introduced by Representatives Clyde Shreve from Guilford and John B. Regan.

The Shreve-Regan bill to “outlaw Communism in North Carolina” sounds to us like an attempt to do by law what the people of this state have already done by common sense.

North Carolina, if we know the state, would be about as stony ground for a Communist to sow his seed as any that could be found. What would be the effect or loyalty tests for all persons working for the state or any of its subdivisions? None, as far as we can judge, except irritation at unwarranted suspicion from which officeholders are required to absolve themselves.

Domestic Communists are crackpots, and North Carolinians know one another too well to appoint or elect such screwballs to responsible positions in the State. If by chance there is any Communist holding any such position, let’s have the evidence against him, but let’s not force every officeholder to take the time and trouble to deny a foolish charge of which nobody even suspects he is guilty.

The pending bill sounds like a proposal to shoot under the bed at a burglar who isn’t there.