Newspapers / The Franklin Times (Louisburg, … / Nov. 12, 1964, edition 1 / Page 4
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LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT Let The Commission Handle It There Is a small sized squab ble going on between the County Commissioners and the Indus trial Development Commission concerning the Commission's right to set salaries of employ- . ees of the Commission. The disagreement, while friendly, stems from the fact the Com mission saw fit to adjust the salary of their secretary 10% when they reduced the Direc tor's salary 40%, because the Director's work was cut to three days a week. The secretary, under this plan assumed some extra duties and the Commis sion felt that she should be compensated for the extra work. The point is not the small amount of money Involved in the raise for the secretary because that was more than compensat ed for by the reduction in the salary of the Director. The point is that the Board of Com missioners appointed members of the Development Commission and they picked good men, and they should allow the Commis sion to operate the Industrial program. If them?n chosen by the Board itself and serving free of any cost to the county are not allow ed to make the decisions per taining to the Development pro gram, why have them? Certain ly, these outstanding citizens who have served their county well In securing two new Indus tries in recent months, should be praised. In our opinion they are perfectly capable of making all decisions pertaining to their office and should be allowed to do so. Cefrtainly the Commissioners have an obligation to the people to supervise all county depart ments and well they should, but they should not spend their time in minor matters that are better left to the discretion of the boards appointed by the Com missioners themselves to be In charge of the department. High caliber people cannot be expected to serve long on such boards or commissions if the Commissioners are to question every move they make. W ho' 11 Be Number 11? Ten people have been killed thus far this year on Franklin County highways. Six of these were pedestrians. Of these, five were killed after dark and one was killed early In the morning during a heavy fog. Two were children, one walking and one riding a bike. There has to be a lesson somewhere In these figures. If we will only look for It. The latest victim Tuesday night near Centerville, was walklnga main highway at night wearing dark . clothing andnotcarrylnga light. It Is Impossible to see a pedes trian under these circumstanc es when meeting an oncoming car. If you don't think so, try to visualize such a situation next time you meet a car at night. There are a number of people that do not understand basic traffic safety rules. It might be well if in each community, groups were formed with the purpose of distributing traffic safety information through pub lications and meetings. It is time for all of us to become greatly concerned with this business of staying alive with today's ever growing highway toll. Simple precautions often mean the difference. We should make sure all our people know these simple rules. We In Franklin County roust make traffic safety an every day affair. We must think it, talk It and practice It. Otherwise any of us can be number 11. NATIONAL EDITORIAL COMMENT Reading & Writing Mori- than 11 liillion persons in the w?irlrl cannot read or write - M |*t . cent of all the earth's people over If,. India has universal suffrage ami Vet more than 200 million of its voters are illiternte. One man -and we can be |iroud he is an American -- has done more alNiut this than an> other person, lie is Dr. . Frank ('. 1-iuUich. still aggressively looking to the future at HO. Hack 10 years ago as a missionary to the Moros in the IliilippineR, he si*?i found out he could accomplish little as long as all the Moros were illiterate. He came up With an idea that he has s|iread around the world. That idea is: "Kach one teach one." Kach person taught to read and write pledges to teach one other person. Based on this simple thought, Uiulwch and his associates have conducted mass literacy camiiaigns or |>re|>ared materials in .'11 1 lang uages in Kfi countries. Uiubach is on solid ground when he says the problem of illiteracy should be considered in every foreign aid project --public or private. And he points out there are ten million persons in the I'. S. who cunnot effectively read or write ? in a nation where a relatively few votes have been known to, swing a national election. On Buying People No crueler proof exists of the contempt in which the individual is held behind the Iron Curtain than the latest deal by Walter Ulbricht with West Germany. He will swap 10,000 prisoners for credits to bu\ badly -needed goods. West German Chancellor Krharri is understandably reluctant to dis cuss details. He has left unanswer ed a question about the exact price, apparently fearful that specifics might bring a reaction and upset liberation plans. A number of East Cierman prison ers have been languishing in prison more than ten years for anti communist activity. In a land where tellinfe a political joke can be a crime against the state, who knows what the charges are? Yet the West Germans are right to pay the ransom. In similar peace time circumstances, we would probably do the same thing, just as we bartered medical supplies for Bay of Pigs survivors in 1962. The amnesty is being interpreted as a "liberalization" of Rast German's regime. Perhaps in the Ulbricht view, it is. But only in the Communist world could the sale of human beings be considered an act of good will. TheFp Established 1870 - n Times Published Tuesdays l> Thursdays by The Franklin Times, Inc. Blckett Blvd. Dial GY 8-3283 LOUISBURG, N. C. CLINT FULLER, Managing Editor ELIZABETH JOHNSON, Business Manager NATIONAL EDITORIAL Advertising Rates SUBSCRIPTION RATES Upon Request In Sorth Carolina: Out of State: One Year, $4.64; Six Months, $2.83 Single Copy 10? One Year, $8.50; SI* Months, $4.00 Three Months, $2.0? Three Months, $3.50 Entered u second class mall matter and postage paid at the Poet Office at Lou Is burg, N. C. 27549. EDUCATION PAYS DIVIDENDS AMERICAN EDUCATION WEEK ? Viewpoint -- No Political Party Can Be All Things To All People One day, perhaps, Senator Karl Mundt of South Dakota will be successful In his pro longed efforts to persuade the American people to under stand something that should have been obvious to them all along. It cannot be said that the Senator has not tried. Long before Barry Gold water first thought of run ning for the United States Senate, much less the Presi dency, Senator Mundt was preaching the doctrine that the voters ought to have a real choice, not an echo, In every election. As long as 1950, Vlr. Mundt was promot ing a movement to reallne the two major political parties In the United States. He was weary, he said repeatedly, of the spectacle of both parties attempting to be all things to all men. Not only is such a performance frustrating, It is degrading to men .In public life. And Its natural fruit is the deterioration of integrity In government No honest observer can sur vey the current American po litical picture and then ser iously disagree with Senator Mundt's position. The recent Republican convention demon strated the awkwardness of a political tent presuming to cover such contrasting pos-t turos as those of Javltts of New York and Goldwater of Arizona. Democrats may smile, If they wish, at the bruises put on display at San Francisco. But, the Demo cratic Party tent bulges with the unglrdled conflicts be tween the philosophies of the South versus the North, the Harry Byrds versus the Hu bert Humphreys; Indeed the basic concept of Jeffersonlan Democracy versus the floating vascillatlons of Lyndon John son. The platitude that either party, or any party, ought to be big enough to embrace such vast divergences of phil osophy and principle Is non sense. Such a strained em brace Is good neither for a party or for a nation. The simple truth is that the peo ple need and deserve a clear cut choice. This Is why Senator Mundt makes sense with his plea that a reallnement of polit ical parties be attempted. The country Is torn between bits and pieces of liberalism and conservatism. As matters now stand, the voters are confused, Many stay home in disgust on elec tion day. And that, contends Senator Mundt, tends to mag nify the authority of profes sional poll"cians over private citizens who have grown weary and resentful at being forced to buy a "duke's mixture" of political postures, whether they decide to vote either a Democratic or a Republican ticket. It is possible that Senator Mundt'* idea has been thwarted thus far by the lack of a sufficiently simple method of transition. Some will say, of course, that reallnement already Is open avenue (or discontented voters. But there is, and probably always will be, a lack of sufficient lead ership. The conservative fol lowers of Dan Moore and Bev erly Lake in this state's Dem ocratic Party see no percent age in turning over the party which they now obviously con trol to faction which they have Just defeated at the polls. At the same time, any reasonable appraisal of the now dominant faction In the North Carolina Democratic Party Is bound to disclose a pronounced dis affection for Lyndon Johnson and many of the policies of the Democratic Administra tion In Washington. The end result, If we will Just see it for what It Is, Is a certain amount of hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty. America's potential strength, we believe, lies In the op portunity of the people to choose principles Instead of personalities. Politics should Morganton--When the voters Indicated their choice (or President and Vice President on November 3 they set In mo tion an Indirect system of choosing these officials. The process will not be concluded until the Electors cast their ballots on December 14 and Congress tabulates the votes on January 6. The system re news the quadrennial concern over Vie manner of electing the President and Vice President. Constitutional provisions which govern the Electoral Col lege have existed for more than 150 years, but time and custom have made changes In Its opera tion. In the first years of our national government, State legislatures picked the elec tors. Gradually thereafter two significant changes occurred. Each State began to permit the people to select the members of the Electoral College who In turn chose the President and Vice1 President. In the mld 1830's State legislatures de cided to adopt the concept that the candidate who won the popu lar vote of a State would also win the entire electoral vote of that State. Since 1836, there have been only two notable ex ceptions to this rule. In 1876, the Colorado legislature chose the State's electors. In 1892, Michigan's electors were chos en on a district basis. In recent years Gallup polls have Indicated that a majority of the people favor a change In the method of electing our President. The June 15 Su preme Court decision setting have the untempered enthu siasm of men who themselve* believe what they ask others to believe. In short, people should be long to a political party be cause they share certain prin ciples; they should not becon (ronted with even an Implied requirement that they share differing principles si mply because they belong to a po litical party. It may be, then, that this will be a year of encourage ment to Senator Mundt's pro longed call for a reallnement of parties. The Republican Party has taken a forceful stand on behalf of principles which many Americans In all sincerity do not share. If the Democrats Indulge In a mini mum of doubletalk and plati tudes, and forth-rlghtly em brace the liberalism of their party's leadership, then a true contrast between the two ma jor parties will be evident to every voter. forth the "on? man, one vote" view In the election of Stat* legislatures also raises ques tions over the Constitutionally sanctioned Electoral College. Concern over the Electoral College provision Is not new. The first Constitutional Amend ment offered on this subject came on January 6, 1791. Since then, hardly a Congressional session has gone by without the Introduction of Amendments to alter the method of electing a President. The tact that the present elec toral system has elected three Presidents who received less popular votes than their oppon ents has been of long standing concern. But another major concern arises over the Con stitutional permission whereby electors could cast their votes In disregard of the popular will. Admittedly, It Is seldom done. Although there has been con siderable dissatisfaction with the Electoral College system, no clear consensus has emerg ed on how It should be changed. Some members of Congress fa vor the direct election of the President on the basis of popu lar vote. Others prefer the preservation of the Electoral College as such with the amend ment that electors be chosen on the basis of the popular vote In each district with two State wide electors chosen In addi tion thereto. I favor the pro portional plan which I Intro duced as a resolution In 1961. It would measure the State's electoral votes In proportion to the popular votes received by each candidate for the Presi dency. A similar plan passed the Senate In 1950 but did not receive House approval. The proportional plan would do away with the Individual elec tors, but would retain the Fed eral principles embedded In the Electoral College system whereby each State's vote would reflect Its membership In the House and Senate. It would accurately reflect the sentiments of the people In each State to a much greater degree than the present "wlnner-take all" concept In electoral voting. The proportional plan also ap pears to have the best chance of getting the necessary two thirds consent of the Congress, and the approval by three fourths of the State legislatures. Thus far too many cooks have spoiled the hopes of bringing out one recipe to change the present Constitutional provis ion. Whether a new proposal can get the consensus necessary U still problematical. EARLY THANKSGIVING Before the regular Thanksgiving season we want to get on the line with SPECIAL THANKS to all our friends and customers. The first Thanksgiving by our Pilgrim Fathers many years ago was for Ma bountiful harvest" - meaning corn, wheat and potatoes. Our Thanksgiving in 1964 is also for "a bountiful harvest" - but we mean friends - a BOUNTIFUL HARVEST of friends and customers ? folks like you and you and YOU. i ' Your support in 1964 has made working with you a pleasure and we pledge ourselves to continued efforts to give you the best. Call us any time for LP Gas, Fuel Oils, Gasoline, Tires, Coal and anything else we handle! You wont be sorry. LITTLE RIVER ICE & FUEL COMPANY SINCLAIR DISTRIBUTORS PHONE GY6-3410 LOUISBURG, N. C.
The Franklin Times (Louisburg, N.C.)
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Nov. 12, 1964, edition 1
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