The Ff
l??>? T ?*W?y A TWAy
Times
?? ? -? M ? l>Nk CMf
Your Award Winning County Newspaper
Tuesday, April 8, 1969
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Price Can Be High
? ng|
Franklin County has taken steps to
become a participant in the North
Carolina plan to combat crime under
the federal Omnibus Crime Control
and Safe Streets Act passed by Con
gress last year. Last month, the Board
of County Commissioners appointed
Sheriff William T. Dement as the
county representative on the Planning
Board.
Last week, Richard Alston, an alert
Gold Sand Community resident
brought to public attention via a
Letter to the Editor published on this
page, some of the dangers involved in
this act. Mr. Alston's points were well
taken.
Memories are short and most of us
live^with an attitude of it-can't-hap
pen-to-me. Nevertheless, one need
only take a look at the total mess
which plagues the public schools of
this country to realize that when
dealing with Washington bureaucrats,
it most surely can happen to us all.
As with many laws passed by Con
gress over the years, the stated inten
tions of this one appears good. Cer
tainly this country needs a concerted
effort to curb crime. And many local
law enforcement agencies are in need
of additional funds. However, if past
history is any example, once this law
goes to the bureaucrats for adminis
tration, Congress might as well not
exist. It's been quite a few years since
Congress has decided it passed a bad
law. Once on the books, laws are
seldom repealed. If is not the kind of
thing one can say let us give it a try.
Once hooked, the die is cast. There is
noescape.
Several sections of Public Law
90-351 are suspect regardless of what
subsequent sections might say. Among
them is the fact that the President
appoints an Administrator and two
assistants. These people will have the
power. If a plan fails to come up to
their expectations,' they can cut the
money off. If the agency wants a
hearing, one will be granted by the
Administrator. When he rules against
the local agency, he will grant a
re-hearing. When he rules for the
second time, the locals may go before
the appeals court. If this sounds at all
familar, it is. Just ask any school
board member.
Then there is a section which says
no racial quota will be necessary or
any racial balance will be required.
This, it seems, is also contained some
where in the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
One has only to check the Supreme
Court rulings to see how that little
phrase is being interpreted.
When the money is being used to
buy equipment or to pay additional
officers or to construct a building, it
will be almost impossible to allow it
to be cut off. Rulings by the Supreme
Court on employment practices and
use of federal funds will quickly
scratch the assurances included in this
law.
There are many other suspect
clauses contained in it. It appears to
be the first step in the take-over of
local law agencies by the federal gov
ernment. It doesn't have to be by
force. Under this law, it can come
with brain-washing in training courses,
with extra and badly needed funds
and in many other ways.
We would not second guess the
Commissioners in acting to have the
county included in this federal hand
out. We- would only remind everyone
that the price can be very high.
. Turning Them Loose
Newspapers are constantly report
ing examples of how judicial leniency
continues to endanger the public
safety. A recent story out of Washing
ton points up once again just how
grave the situation has become.
The report says that seventy-six of
the felonies which occurred there last
year were committed by 45 persons
already under indictment for armed
robbery, but were out on bail, pend
ing trial.
Chief Inspector Sanford D. Garelik
of New York City says: "It is self-de
feating, to say the least, to have to
arrest the same people over and over
again. It seems as if our system of
criminal justice is.being perverted into
a system of criminal injustice -- in
justice to a repeatedly victimized
public".
A good example is the trial of
Sirhan Sirhan. A number of people
saw Sirhan assassinate Senator Robert
Kennedy. He. himself, readily admits
it, but more' time is being spent
reviewing Sirhan's past then is being
spent with the details of his planning
and carrying out the murder of a
United States Senator. Nowadays, the
stress is on the "why" instead of the
innocense or guilt of the criminal.
In Dover,,. Delaware a man was
arrested last June for indecent ex
posure. Bond was set at $500. Two
days later a young' girl was kidnapped
and attacked. The same man was
arrested and charged with the crime.
Neither of these cases has ever been
tried. The young girl Bbmmitted
suicide a few days after the attack.
Later an 18- year old girl was ak>
ducted at knife point. She managed to
escape with just minor injuries. The
same man, this time, gave himself up
to police. He is now serving a six
month term. For what? Not for the
kidnapping and assault which led to
suicide of a young girl; not for the
abduction of the 18-year-old. He it
serving time for violation of parole.
You see, he was arrested in 1966 for
assaulting and robbing an old man.
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"LYNDON? IT'S STILL TICKING!"
i. l -J fit b i ? ? i- v
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Frightening Lesson
The Courier-Times, Roxboro, N. C.
Horrible and morbid as the circum
stances may be, there is a lesson for all
parents in the tragic kidnap-murder of
13-year-old Jackie Stone of Wallace,
N. C.
The terrifying fate that befell this
innocent young girl points up all to
vividly the importance for parents to
instruct their children NEVER to al
low themselves to be picked up by
strangers, no matter what these
strangers may tell them.
It's easy to rationalize this sort of
thing away, to tell ourselves that this
is something that happens only to
other people in other places, that it
would never happen in Person Coun
ty. Maybe it won't; we pray God not.
But the case of Jackie Stone illustrates
that the risk is not worth it. Alert
your children to the sad fact that
there are bad, unpredictable people in
this world. Impress upon them that
their getting into a car with a total
stranger is an unwise and dangerous
thing to do. And when they ask you
why, tell them. Tell them that there is
a pretty little Easter dress in Wallace,
N. C. that will never be worn, that
there's a seventh-grade classroom in
Duplin County with a vacant desk and
that a mother and father who a week
ago had three reasons to live now have
only two.
r
Sermon May Not Come
The News Reporter, Whiteville, N. C.
While talk goes on and hopes rise
sky high concerning the building of
Soul City in Warren county, nothing
has been said and no plans promoted
as to how residents of the proposed
municipality would be sustained in
the matter of maintaining the city and
making a living.
Have promoters looked beyond
Main Street and storefronts and
people coming a-shopping on a Satur
day afternoon with plans for payrolls
to provide the where-with for filling
shopping bags?
Presently, this second and essential
phase seems to be something akin to
the country preacher who doesn't "
prepare his sermon but waits for it to
come when he gets into the pulpit.
And what sort of justification is
the U. S. Housing and Urban Affairs
Department going to find when the
appeal arrives for some $30 million to
buy the land, put in streets, sidewalks,
water and sewer facilities and build
ings for businesses and homes?
Oh, perhaps they are saying, good
jobs with regular work and high pay
will come when these, essentials for
living and doing business become a
reality. But will they?
What sort of skills, if any, would
residents of Soul City have to offer
industry? Corporate wealth is suf
ficient all across the land to take a
fling at establishing a plant out on the
fringes, but the facts of economics
coupled with the profit-motive do not
indicate industry would be of a mind
to take such a shot in the dark.
The expected request for $30 mil
lion to get the proposal going would
be a selling of securities with the
government guaranteeing payment if
the dare failed. Then What? Thirty
millin dollars of taxpayers gone down
the drain.
This doesn't make sense and any
more than other similar ventures
Uncle Sam has' jumped into and got
his feet burned.
Why should not promoters and
well-heeled friends, of which there are
plenty, put something into the pot to
show good will?
fc'COME
r THINK
OF IT..."
'i
by
frank count
I ain't got no objection to spring coming, if it wants to.
Fact is. I think it picks a pretty good time of the year to do it.
It conies when it just starts to get warm and things are budding
and grass is starting to grow and the baseball season is ready to
start. Yep. I suspect that if I could chose a time to visit around
here, it'd be about the same time of year that spring comes.
I ain't got no argument with spring except for what it does
to the little woman. It makes her plain miserable. She can't
stand it. You'd think she'd like it since she gets cold the last of
July and don't get warm until the last of the next June. She
always has had a short summer.
But just let her hear that spring is here. I don't know where
mic gcria iici uuuiiiMiiun. i suic
don't tell her. Fact is. 1 tell her very
little. I know I ain't gonna tell her
spring's here. That's because it
makes her so miserable. Not her n
exactly. Me. It's me that she makes J
so miserable every spring. . .
Take last week. And you could
have had it. First thing. "Mow the
lawn", she says. "Mow the lawn?",
I countered. "There ain't a blade of
grass within a mile of our yard".
There wasn't either except a few
sprigs of onions and I tol<J her flat
out I won't going to cut no onions.
They make me smell.
"Well, paint the house", she I
shouted. "Where?", 1 asked. "Up j
there", she said pointing. I told her ^
she ought'n point. It ain't polite. I
shouldn't a done that. She didn't
like it not nary bit.
"Why can't you paint the house.
Look next door. George painted C
their house", she said. Right off 1 made a mental note. I got to
kill George.
"I can't paint way up there in all this wind", I pleaded. "I
could get blowed off the ladder and no telling what'd
happen". She kept making her point until I reminded her my
insurance premiums is three months behind.
''Well", she said. "Come inside. You can paint the
bedrooms". "Paint the bedrooms?", I shouted. "I just painted
them week before last".
"No you didn't. It's been two months since you done any
painting. It's time you got up off your lazy backside and get to
work. You been setting around until you are beginning to
spread", she said. I couldn't argue with her. I can't stand to
cry.
"Where's the paint and what color you doing this time?", I
asked getting ready for the worse. "Purple", she said. "I'm
going to paint it purple". "Pine", I said. "Ill be back in a
couple of hours".
She didn't really mean she was going to paint it purple. She
meant I was going to paint it purple. Who ever saw a purple
bedroom? Me. That's who.
Fact is, I had purple floors, purple rugs, purple hands,
purple pants, purple shirts and purple hair before I got
through. One time I spilt some on her foot. She ought'n have
had it up on the ladder. She was trying to push me over. That's
when I spilt some. Ever seen a mad woman with a purple foot?
I have.
I painted the ceiling first. That's the way us painters do.
Paint the ceiling first. That way you can paint the rest of the
room with the drippings.
Well, to make a miserable story short enough to live with,
after about five hours of plain torture, shut up in that little
room with that purple-footed woman and peeping through
two little unpainted holes in my eyeballs. I finally finished. I
just fell flat on the floor and asked to be left there to die or
whatever happens to finished painters.
Then she done it. Then she viewed her world which she had
just conquered, beat herself on the chest and yelled like
Tarzan. "We have saved five dollars", she said. "Saved five
dollars? And me working, like this for five hours? How much
did the brush and rollers and all this stuff cost?" I was afraid
of the answer but I knowed I had to hear it. "I paid $6.95 for
everything but the paint. We saved five dollars by you doing it.
That painter wanted a dollar a'hour and for lis to supply the
paint. I'm gonna buy me a new hat."
Ah, spring. What a time of the year for you to come.
Raleigh ? A deadline for
Introducing local bills in the
1969 legislature is rapidly ap
proaching.
I am glad to report that
almost all local legislation af
fecting the 16th House Dis
trict of Vance, Warren and
Franklin counties has been
expedited and given favorable
treatment.
Among these bills intro
duced by your representa
tives, Rep. James Speed and
myself. Is
one auth
orizlng
the Vance
County
Board of
E ducation
to convey
certain
au r p lu i
a c h o ol
propert
to the
county
one to in
creaae the
y
t
'CHURCH
size 01 me iNoruna board ol
Report From Raleigh
By Rep. John T. Church
commissioners from three to
five members; to permit 14
per cent alcoholic content
wine sales through the ABC
system In Warren County; to
permit local ABC boards to
sell at public auction real and
personal property.
The latter bill was Intro
duced as a local measure re
quested by ABC officials In
Vance County but later be
came a public (statewide)
measure and it was ratified on
March 25.
A somewhat unusual local
bill which Rep. Speed and I
introduced was one to amend
the charter of the town of
Littleton.
More than 76 years ago, in
1893, the founden of the
town of Littleton decided
they wanted an incorporated
town but that it should re
main a little town. They
placed a limit of $300,000
upon all future evaluation of
estate and property for tax
purposes. Littleton has re
mained a modest, small town,
a good place to live and it has
prospered. By today's stan
dards. the $300,000 evalua
tion limit is not realistic and
the purpose of the bill, rati
fied March 24, was to allow
evaluation based upon to
day '? yardstick. Times have
changed.
Actually there has been a
great deal less local legislation
In the current session of the
General Assembly than in re
cent years. Very likely, with a
trend to give more "home
rule" In North Carolina there
will be even leas In subse
quent sessions.
The governor addressed a
joint session of tip House and ,
Senate on this particular sub
?
ject on Thursday. I believe
the general reaction waa fav
orable.
One area of controversy,
however, is in the governor's
proposal to permit statewide
"local option" on increasing
the sales tax for local govern
ments. Several alternative
methods of increasing local
government revenue have
been submitted. I am not in
favor of the statewide "local
option" plan, but I am in
clined to favor a statewide
increase of one per cent to be
returned to the localities on a
basis of population.
It was quite encouraging
to thow of us opposed to
further taxing of tobacco that
ao many interested citizens
cam* to Raleigh for public
hearing by the joint Finance
CommVee on this matter.
I feA that such ? large
turnout certainly was of help
In persuading legislators who
were undecided, or "on the
fence," so to speak, on how
the people feel about a tobac
co tax. It was a magnificent
showing of strength by a very
Influential group of people
and. In my opinion. It helped
the cause.
It was unfortunate that
there were not enough seats
In the legislative building au
ditorium and that the hear
ings were not moved to larger
quarters, and that other in
conveniences occurred. I am
hopeful that better arrange
ments will be made in the
future.
Tourist Trade Off
Paris - The French Tourfct
Commission has reported that
tourist trade last year was off
17 per cent, according to
French hotels. The biggest
drop was seen In tourists
from America and Britain