Do the People Rule in America? Or Do the Big Corporations, Asks A.C. Huneycutt, March 14, 1922

“The people are still sovereign,” is the heading which The Gastonia Gazette gives one of its leading editorials in a recent issue; but really, are they? We hardly think so. It is true they have the right to be sovereign, but have they not slept on their rights, and is it not a fact that the real power in politics in the United States is vested in the few big corporations which run the government practically as they desire?

Indications are that at least some of the treaties negotiated at the recent disarmament conference will be reputed by the United States Senate. Really, is our government as ideal as we have always boasted of it as being? By what method could the United States really enter into a contract or agreement with the other nations of the world, or with any single nation? Shall we reach the point where we shall be classed by the world as having an unstable and unreliable government? After all, are we in a class with Russia and Mexico? President Wilson negotiated treaties, and they were repudiated by the senate. President Harding negotiated treaties, and it looks as if they are going to be repudiated by that same body. Are we really capable of contracting?

From the editorial page of the Stanly News-Herald, Albemarle, N.C., March 14, 1922. A.C. Huneycutt, editor.