Three weeks before the Wall Street crash of 1929, Brevard News Editor James F. Barrett wrote:
“Let the child die for want of attention”
“Once upon a time in a community not so far from here, there lived a family of three—the father, mother and a beautiful child. The child grew ill, slightly ill at the beginning gradually grew worse. The father and mother, both strong, healthy people, paid no attention to the child’s illness, other than to complain about the inconvenience and the extra cost of such sickness. Then, too, it interfered with their personal pleasure. They would not call in a physician, nor did they offer even the simple remedies that might have saved the child’s life.
Now, there isn’t a word of truth in the above statement. It was written so you would read the rest of this editorial, for the following is a fact.
Brevard is a beautiful town. It is sick, desperately sick. The citizens of Brevard are strong, healthy men. But they are doing absolutely nothing for Brevard’s illness. It looks as if the strong, healthy, intelligent men of this town are going to sit idly by and watch this beautiful young town die in its infancy, just when it could be made into one of the strong towns of the Carolinas.
Even the simple remedies applied in usual cases of distress would work wonders in saving this town’s life. It is YOUR town. Do you care anything at all about it? If so, you would do well too busy yourselves in applying whatever remedy is necessary to save the town’s life.
It ain’t agona rain no more. If it does, Noah’s flood is gonna be a puddle alongside our flood.
What’s the use of worry about the tariff? The Big Boys are going to get their brand of tariff, just as they want it, where they want it, when they want it, and how they want it. That’s why they have Premier Mussolini and Andy Mellon so near the seat of government. In fact, he’s on the seat.
The land of the free and the home of the brave, where a great free and fearless public is in the hands of the stock gamblers in the real capitol of the nation, that is, Wall Street. No more will the pictures of warriors bold and statesmen great adorn the walls of our school buildings as beacons of hope and inspiration to the youth of our great and free land. The pictures of successful gamblers will replace the old fogies. Rules for successful stock market speculation will replace the beatitudes, and though shalt pay twenty per cent for call money with which to gamble will replace the Ten Commandments. A seat of the stock exchange is already more to be desired than a seat in the White House, and ‘Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death’ has already been changed to ‘Give Me Just One More Chance on the Stock Market, or Into Hell I Go.’ Fine country. Fine gambling. Fine example for the youth of the land.”
Letter to the Editor
T. M. Mitchell responded to the story on Oct. 23, 1929, by saying, “The article stated that the child (representing Brevard) was very ill and that the parents, (meaning the people of Brevard) were doing nothing for the sick child’s relief. I believe that you are mistaken as to who is sick. The fact is, it is not the child who is sick, but the parents. The child referred to is just as healthy, as robust, and beautiful as any child in the whole United States. If the child should be entered in a beauty contest, I firmly believe it would win hands down, over all other contestants.
The trouble is this. The parents of the child have expended all their substances and all they could borrow, for the purchase of fine gaudy raiment, were to decorate and bespangle the child. It is overdressed with clothes its parents have bought on credit and now are unable to pay for. While the child is very beautiful, and full of health and vigor, the parents are in one H— of a fix and must have the immediate attention of several important specialists. The case has advanced to a stage where home remedies will not avail.
Do not forget that the child is all O.K. but the parents are down with a bad case of old-fashioned home-grown belly ache, and if relief is not found for the patients in the very near future, there is going to be an orphan child in this section with no one to do up its laundry.”