Walter Lippmann in
North Carolina
Чу
II. G. JOM S
said "And Che grapes came from near
Clinton and Goldsboro.
"Our grapes had not yet matured to
the commercial state.” he added.
I he story will be different in a cou¬
ple ol months when they do mature,
and when the company's own manu¬
facturing equipment will be ready.
Equipment for harvesting the grapes
is the reason for the company's being.
I our years ago a Southport grape
grower, Marry Sells, invented the grape
harvcslci I he* Darf Corp., also part of
the I demon family enterprise, was li¬
censed to build it.
"We decided to plant a few grapes
for testing the harvester." Williams
said. " I hen we decided to plant more."
Deerfield Vineyards is the name of
the S3 -acre project where the sweet
scuppernongs are grown, eventually to
become a light, dry table-top wine, de¬
veloped by l)r. Dan Carroll of the Uni-
versitx of North Carolina in Raleigh.
Ihe company is already planning to
bottle another type of wine, drier than
the white table variety they are now-
selling.
From there, who knows? North
Carolinians may eventually be offering
champagne toasts with a local product.
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ID
Few journalists ever attained the
stature of Walter Lippmann as an ob¬
server of the American people. Presi¬
dents sought his advice, and his com¬
mentary was fodder for two genera¬
tions. His books and newspaper col¬
umns made his name a household word
to millions of readers.
He died a few months ago. and vari¬
ous newspapers carried stories of his
writings and speeches. They over¬
looked Lippmann's early talks in North
Carolina, including the one that he
gave in Raleigh to the State Literary
and Historical Association 52 years
ago. a classic as appropriate now as
then.
He was only 33 years old in 1922 —
the year in which his enormously popu¬
lar hook Public Opinion was published
— but he had already diagnosed one of
the problems besetting the country. It
was the problem of mediocrity in poli¬
tics — or, as his topic put it. "The Cult
of the Second Best."
A Corrupting Rule
"Wherever you go.” he began, "you
run into the feeling that public life is
kept second rate by great quantities of
hokum and buncomb. by insincerities,
by play to the galleries, by demagogu¬
ery. by propaganda, by lack of moral
courage.” Even first rate men become
second rate in public life, he felt, be¬
cause of the conflict between their de¬
sire to serve the interests of the public
and their temptation to interest the
public. "The interests of the public and
what the public finds interesting do not
coincide, " he argued, adding that "It
is necessary, therefore, at every turn to
combat the notion that the public
should be given what the public wants.
That is an utterly corrupting rule for
politicians, newspapers, professors or
parsons. The «inly rule for each of us
is to give the public what he thinks the
public ought to have, and then neither
whine nor complain if the public rejects
him and goes elsewhere."
Public service. Lippmann con¬
tended. should not be a career; rather.
"one of the first ideals of this Republic
was that a mart should leave his plough
in the furrow to do a public service,
and that he should then return to his
plough when the service was done."
In this way he is not dependent upon
the public, and therefore he can serve
as a "free man." Every person on the
public payroll should be capable of
earning a living in some other way, he
concluded, for “there can be no real
freedom or sincerity in any public ser¬
vice unless men in it arc perfectly ready
to resign or be fired at any time for
their opinions."
Even as Lippmann spoke, America’s
worst political scandal to that time was
secretly taking place in the I larding ad¬
ministration. and the story of I'capot
Dome would not be known to the pub¬
lic for nearly two years- revealed, ap¬
propriately, by a United States senator
who exhibited the kind of courage that
Lippmann was talking about.
At Wake Forest
In 1926 Lippmann was in North
Carolina again, this time to deliver the
commencement address at Wake For¬
est College. He discussed the problems
of democratic government and sug¬
gested that six principles could aid in
solving them: defense of free thought
and speech, toleration of those who dif¬
fer. respect for authority based on com¬
petence and experience, avoidance of
concentration of power in Washington,
respect for sectional differences, and,
above all. trust of “those who are will¬
ing to submit their case to debate, to
examination, to neutral inquiry; dis¬
trust those who stand on their dignity
and their self-righteousness and their
dogmatism and attempt to shut off dis¬
cussion."
Half a century has passed since
young Walter Lippmann gave his first
address in North Carolina on morality
and courage in government. His ad¬
dress. published by the North Carolina
Historical Commission in 1922. de¬
serves rereading in 1975.
THE STATE. FEBRUARY 1975
