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! LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
rv ? j~ 1
Should Plan For Census Now
The time for the 1970 census is near
ing. There are to be a number of changes
in procedures for the massive national
count. The most notable will be that
questionaires will be mailed to urban
dwellers eliminating the visit by an
enumerator. ,
One of the new provisions, with an
application deadline of December 31,
1966, is the opportunity to have parti
cular tracts counted. That is, Louisburg
?' and other towns may have a special
! count of people living in surrounding
areas. This could be helpful in the
event of annexation in the next ten years.
Persons residing in each of the
townships in the county may be counted
and thereby make available the exact
population of any given area. People
living in any school district could also
j be counted.
It seems that it would be to the ad
vantage of the county to apply at once
for this type of special tract count. The
North Carolina Department of Conser
vation and Development recommends that
"local people form a census tract com
mittee and delineate census tracts in>
their community now."
Such a committee would be of great
service to Franklin County. An
accurate count of varioifs affected areas
in our county over the ten-year period
1970-80 could prove invaluable.
With the deadline for requesting this
particular service by the Census Bureau
less than five months away, quick action
is a must.
It is hoped the Board of County Com
missioners and Town Councils will take
note of this and act accordingly.
Reserve Call
Recent demands on the part of Con
? gressmen for the call-up of reserves to
do battle in Viet Nam has raised some
? questions. It is perhaps true that it
takes some pull to get into the reserves
and National Guard nowadays and that
: such service is viewed as a way of
escaping the draft.
Many young men have been elated to
learn that they have been accepted for
the Guard. This, to them, meant they
could stay at home. Others, not so
fortunate, have been called to report to
various induction stations and later
sent to Viet Nam.
The question at the moment seems
to be, first, whether or not the reserve
forces are needed in the war zone or at
training bases and secondly, which
should be called to service, the forces
already trained or young men without
prior service.
There is something to be said in de
fense of both groups. Certainly, re
servists with families and job ties
would suffer a hardship if called into
active service. Then, on the otherhand,
the youngster, just starting his adult
life sacrifices when he must put off his
plans until he has pulled his hitch.
But, somehow it seems wrong to al
low men to remain in reserve status
year after year, while youngsters are
being called. It is not an easy ques
tion to answer.
However, like most questions nowa
days, it may be answered for us. If
the hue and hollow continues among
the national leaders, local reservists
and guardsmen might do well to get
their business in order. We have a no
tion, the locals will be among the first
called.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Only The Victim's Eye
Whiteville News Reporter
A year ago this past July 30 a
coed at the University of North
Carolina was assaulted and
stabbed to death as she walked to
her dormitory through a botanical
garden on the campus.
Upwards of 200 people have
been questioned but so far the
vidian has not been found He
had waited concealed in the gar
den until the student came along.
At the proper moment he snatched
the girl into the bushes and per
petrated the vile deed.
The crime was planned and the
Times
Established 1(70
Published Tuesdays L Thursdays
by
Dm FisekHa THmi, He
MM M. H OT MM Lllll?IIWa, ?. C
CLINT FULLER,
Managing Editor
ELIZABETH JOHNSON,
Business Manager
NATION Al IOITO*IJ
: i Us<ft>c?n
Advertising
Rates
Upon Request
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
Single Copy 10?
In North Carolina:
One Year, $4.64; Six Months, $2.M j
Three Months, $2.06
[Out of State:
One Year, $5.80; Six Months, $4,001
Three Months, $3. SO
man whoever he is committed a
capital offense. When he is run
down, and officers say they will
not quit until he is apprehended,
will he plead insanity? Will doc
tors of various pursuits examine
him and find he is not capable of
discerning between right and
wrong?
Several years ago an elderly
woman in Charlotte was attacked
in a cemetery. She was raped,
killed and then her body was
crammed into a mausoleum.
Subsequently a man was arrested
and held in custody by the police.
During the period he confessed to
the crime and was sentenced to
death. But his case went all the
way to the U. S. Supreme Court and
that court a few days *go set the
man free on the premise that his'
confession was given involun
tarily.
Immediately following the free
dom verdict, the Charlotte soli- ,
citor announced he would not retry
the man for lack of evidence now
that the confession may not be
entered as testimony.
Here in our own midst a few
months ago a man concealed him
self In a woman's home. When she
returned home after nightfall from
her job he assaulted her crimi
nally. When she recognized her
attacker, he pumped several bul
lets Into her body and left her to
die, admitting to her that since she
knew him he was going to kill her
and thus destroy the evidence.
Caught in Baltimore and re
turned to the state, the man was
examined by a battery of doctors
and they found he did not know
right from wrong and was inca
pable of standing trial.
A man hides on a University
campus and stabs a girl to death
as she walks through the garden to
her room. The attacker is still at
large and a young life of promise
has been snuffed out.
A man takes the life of an
elderly woman in a cemetery. He
is caught and admits he committed
the crime but the U. S. Supreme
Court says let him go free because
interrogating officers did not tell
him he did not have to talk and
that he could remain silent or ask
for the advice of an attorney. As
of now he will not be tried for lack
of evidence.
A man plans a crime, carries out
his plans, escapes to another state,
and when brought back doctors say
he didn't know what he was doing.
Is It any wonder that all ages
of both men and women are afraid
to walk the streets at night, afraid
to leave a door or window un
locked? They are afraid to sit in
an office alone, afraid to be the
bnly passenger in an elevator or
drive alone on a highway.
This land's highest court seems
to put all the emphasis on the
rights of the accused but gives
slight attention to the victims and
the masses of law-abiding people
who are all but defenseless in this
time of rising crime.
An eye for an eye? No longer.
Only the victim gives an eye.
Helen Keller
Every so often lite produces some
gallant soul whose triumphs over
crushing adversity become an inspi
rational monument of foith and
courage for the folk of the world
to ponder.
Few fit that characterization more
completely than does the indomitable
Helen Keller.
Her achievements have not gone
unnoticed or unrewarded by a nation
which ranks courage high on the list .
of personal attributes. *
American People Not Easily Shocked
tyksse Helms
The events In the news on any riven
day are Indication aplenty that the
American people are not easily
shocked anymore. Maybe surprised,
maybe lnd l(nant, but not shocked. It
is beginning to appear that we have
lost the sensibility of revulsion.
One of the press associations dls
trlbuted a little Item the other day
that moat nawspapera apparently con
aldered too Inconsequential to publish.
Yet, It was a atern measurement of
our times. It was datellned New York
City, and It went like thla: "Mot all
New Yorkers remain oblivious to the
plight of a fellow man In distress.
Patrotism
" In the past 190 years, patriotism has been a sustain
ing power for America in her darkest hours. It has been
a dominant force in our Nation's survival and in the
preservation of the self-evident truths which were so
dear to our Founding Fathers. However, some sophisti
cates today think an open show of patriotic emotion is
old-fashioned. Patriotic symbols and teachings are.
scorned and neglected. In a Nation founded on an un
faltering faith in God and made great by a rich reservoir
of spiritual Inheritance, it Is shocking to now hear that
'God is dead' and that patriotism is unnecessary. Is this
trend the vision seen by our forefathers who, 'with a
firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,'
mutually pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor
to the establishment of independence? I think not....
"Meantime, our rights and privileges cannot endure unless
each of us discharges the duties and obligations that go
with living in a free society. . . . Respect for law and order
goes hand In hand with love of country. . . ."
J. Edgar Hoover, Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
INDUSTRIAL NEWS UVIIW
When Vail Malornl, 41, slipped on *
banana peel at a subway station Tuea
day, It waa only a matter of seconds
before two men rushed to his side. Aa
Malornl waa ljrlnf on the (round In a
daxe, the first man crabbed Malornl' a
wrlstwatcji and fled. The second man
attempted to stpal his wallet but waa
frightened away by passers-by.
Finally, help did arrive, and Malornl
was hoepltallzed for treatment of In
juries received In the fall."
That waa the Item, as distributed
nationwide by United Press Inter
national. But, aa we say, the Inci
dent Is of a type so commonplace
that news media In (eneral tossed
It aatde. It wasn't news.
I
LETTERS TO THE i
EDITOR _J
To The Editor:
The members of the Louis*
burg Lions Club, In executive
session, unanimously agreed
to support Clint Fuller and
The Franklin Times In their
efforts to get the roads of
Franklin County Improved by
the state, as other counties
are belnf improved.
It would seem that tax monies
should be apportioned to the
counties in proportion to the
needs and the amount of taxes
taken from the various
counties. Since we in Frank
lin County are in dire need
of better roads we feel, as
does Mr. Puller, that It would
be only talr that this county
get their fair share of road
Improvement.
The Lou is burg Lions Club
L D. Moon, Secretary
Where's The 'Competition'?
The Greensboro Daily News
When Superior Court Judge
Hamilton Hobgood signed a res
training order halting the sale of
milk by a High Point foodstore
Chain substantially under the fixed
North Carolina price, he was prob
ably doing what he had to do- only
applying the law as he finds it.
But the intriguing little law
cited to him bears closer examina
tion.
It passed onto the statue books
as l66-266.21-"Sale Below Cost
to Injure or Destroy Competition
Prohlbition"-durlng the 1%5 Gen
eral Assembly-which Is to say
well before the latest boost in
wholesale milk prices, authorized
by the North Carolina Milk Com
mission, made milk prices a burn
ing issue.
Unfortunately, even when its
vital interests are affected, the
public can follow only so much of
the legislation that springs full
blown from the imaginations or
special interests of legislators.
What is intriguing about the
1965 law, a law transparently
passed to serve the special in
terests of the milk industry and in
voked by attorneys for the Milk
Commission before Judge Hobgood,
is that is puts the burden of proof
on persons accused of violating
it. This is, to say the least, a
novel twist on the presumption of
Innocence. The law reads, in
part as follows:
"At any hearing or trial on a
complaint under this section, evi
dence of sale oflmilk by a distribu
tor ... or retailer below cost shall
constitute prima facie evidence of
the violation or violations alleged
(that is, that such sales are "for
the purpose of injuring, harassing
or destroying competition") and
the burden of rebutting the prima
facie case thus made . . . shall be
upon the person charged with vio
lation.)'
It is difficult to say which is
morejaughable feature of this law:
its setting of penalties for retail
ers who supposedly "injdPe compe
tition," or its adoption of the alien
idea that a person accused of
breaking the law is guilty until he
"rebuts" the "prima facie" case
against him
If anything is self-evident from
the recent flap about milk prices
in North Carolina, it is that for
reason either good or bad or both
there is no competition in the sale
of milk In North Carolina. When '
grocers sell milk at or near the
same price, where is the "compe
tition" to be injured?
Milk prices are in fact tightly
controlled by the North Carolina
Milk Commission which, while It
shies from fixing retail price lists
directly, sets the prices paid by
distributors to producers of milk
and thus puts a fixed floor under
wholesale costs.
If the Milk Commission gracious
ly refrains from setting retail
prices on this essential commodity,
the reason is not far to seek: the
1965 act, as James Ross pointed
out in his story on the Big Bear
action earlier this week, makes It
unnecessary. If the wholseale cost
of milk is effectively set by the
Milk Commission and the 1%5
act makes it unlawful to sell milk
at less than 7 per cent above the
going wholesale price, then the
Milk Commission is setting milk
prices. No doubt about it.
In fact, the dead giveaway if
that the legal action to halt Big
Bear's undersale of milk stems not
from some other retailer, supposed
ly victimized by the injury to com
petition, but from the Milk Com
mission itself. In effect, the tax
supported public regulatory body
is taking action to restrain a pri
vate retailer who seeks to give the
consumer a break. The taxpaying
consumer, that is, subsidizes his
his own downfall.
To be sure, the whole question
of milk prices and their relation
ship to the supply of milk is vex
ed. But it does seem a mockery
of the function of law to pretend
that *rfiat is rigidly fixed by a
public commission is "competi
tive" and to penalize, with the
burden of proof on the defendant,
anyone who breaks the tightly
dressed ranks of non-competitive
milk retailers.
It is to be doubted, we .suspect,
that the consuming public will
tolerate such legalistic flummery
for very long.
FBI Director J, Kdgar Hoover bu
for imn1 years been warm1**
American* about the dangerous In
crease in crime In the United Statu.
Occasionally Americans become In
about It, but they oontlnue to
elect the same old crowd that has
allowed the criminal element , to
threaten a take-over of the country.
The perspective at the difference be
tween right and wrong has been loet
in a loud barrage of cUchee about
poverty and "rights" and under
prlvllege. The Supreme Court hand
cuffs the police, the President ad
vocates the destruction of poverty
rights, and the Congress trots along
like an obedient puppy.
The Constitution Is being Ignored
and virtually discarded. Some poli
ticians and political judges are be
ginning to say that It Is "outmoded,"
that It belongs to the horse-and-buggy
days. Well, so do the Ten Command
ments?shall we scrap them, tool
The emphasis today la on "change"
-everything that we respected
yesterday, everything that we be
lieved In last week, must be changed
by tomorrow. Nobody stops to ask
whether It's a change for the better.
Old-fashioned decency Is ridiculed;
It's cute to go unwashed and un
shaved? and unrestrained by any of
the old-fashioned moral codes. Ral
lies and protests and riots keep the
Idle busy? and keep the busy saddled
with taxes to provide welfare checks
for drones too lazy or too clever to
work.
We don't suggest that an able
bodied man be denied his right to re
fuse to work. But we do suggest that
he be let go hungry as a result of his
decision. Let him raise pigs In his
living room If he wishes? but that
won't change the pig, only his living
room.
It's simple enough, and perfectly
Justifiable, to blame the politicians for
all of this If? and let us emphasize the
word "U"? we first blame ourselves
for our choice of politicians. As some
one has aald, some politicians are like
cockroaches: It's not what they steal
and carry off. It's what they fall Into
and mess up.
When was the last time you wrote to
your Congressman? More Important,
when was the last time you voted for a
fellow you believed to be a crook, not
because you like crooks but because
you wanted to preservq.some govern
ment hand-out that 14 coming to you?
Judge Learned Hand once aald: "Li
berty lies In the hearts of men and
women; when It dies there, no con
stitution, no law, no court can save
It;" constitution, no law, no court
can even do much to help It." This
is .a profound truth that needs to be
fiitderstoo d at this tlMS when the
spirit of*people to preserve their
liberties is diminishing year by year.
In that light, how do the "old
fashioned" things look to you? that
"outmoded" Constitution, and that
"horae-and-buggy" religion? These
were the foundation beams of our
republic. And It Is only by returning
to them that the house of our fathers
ever can be restored.
Do You Agree?
Not*: Tko following is on ovprossion
of tho editor's fooling on curront ovonts.
You may or may not ogroo. You oro
invitod to oxprosa your own opinion.
Simply writo; Do You Agroo. Tho Fronk
lin Timos, Louisburg, N C- Moko it
skort ond ko suro to sign yowr nomo
Mr. Justice William 0. Doug
las once again hat taken a bride
of tender years and has an
nounced that they will honeymoon
in enemy Red China. Mr. Jus
tice Douglas has as ipuch of a
Constitutional right to marry and
remorry as Tommy Mansville,
Fronk Sinatra or Nelson Rocke
feller. We hope that his trip
to China will be a pleasant one.
The country will be better off,
if he tokes the slowest boat.