The Fr
* T ?ti<n ft Tkwntfty
Times
Your Award Winning County N ewspaper
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Council Makes Wise Move
Action by the newly elected Louis
burg Town Council toward getting the
registration books straightened out
before another municipal election is
commendable. A number of com
plaints were registered in the recent
elections about the conditions of the
books. Fortunately, however, there
were none of a serious nature.
Louisburg is fortunate that it es
caped without a scar. Chapel Hill did
not. In every precinct there were some
indications of serious errors. If reports
coming from there are correct, there
were some flagrant violations of vot
ing procedures.
It is reported that Chapel Hill
voted people long dead and others
long moved away. There were reports
of persons coming in from outside of
town to vote in the municipal elec
tions and of several persons voting in
more than one precinct.
These -are serious charges even in
Chapel Hill and it is hoped that that
community will do something to cor
rect this type of thing. This is one
reason it is good to see the new
council take such speedy action in
Louisburg.
There should be as little confusion
as possible in the election and voting
processes and there should be no
room for suspicions. Elections must
be strictly above board and they
should appear that way. An orderly
registration, properly handled is one
of the surest ways to gain and keep
the public confidence. The Louisburg
move is a wise one and others should
take note.
Moment Of Truth On Gas Tax
One day this week-maybe today -
members of the General Assembly are
going to be facing their moment of
truth in the controversial two-cent per
gallon gasoline tax. Chances are the
truth will result in the passage of this
part of Governor Scott's tax program.
Results of voting in recent bond
elections clearly shows the general
public to be anti-tax and justifiably
so. However, there are still some facts
of life Franklin citizens cannot ignore.
y Franklin voted against the road
bonds in 1965 and it gained us abso
lutely nothing except, perhaps, a
moment of getting it off our chests.
We are paying fhat tax. We just didn't
get a whole lot of benefits from it.
Franklin's road needs are no less
acute today than they have been for
years. The main difference seems to
be that the state doesn't have any
money with which to build roads. In
the past, there seems to have been
money but it found its way elsewhere.
Arguments of the past are fine for
reminiscing but they get us very little
road improvements. Motorists across
the state will, of course, share in this
latest proposed tax. Maybe Franklin
will in some manner get some of its
money back from past years.
Gasoline prices in this area are
reasonable compared to some others
in the state. We're paying a bit more
than the 28.5 for regular reported
earlier this year in Shelby but less
than the 40.9 being paid for high test
in Duplin County a while back. In
practically all towns reporting in a
recent survey by the Association of
Afternoon Daily Newspapers, all ser
vice stations said that a penny or more
was tacked onto the pump prices in
March, less than a month after the
Governor proposed his two-cent ta*
on gasoline. If this survey is accurate,
these service stations have already
added the extra and motorists are
already paying the difference.
The survey did not include the
Franklin County area and may or may
not apply here.
Franklin's Senator E. F. Griffin
reportedly plans to support the bill.
Just how Franklin's two Representa
tives stand has not been disclosed. If
this bill passes, it would be to Frank
lin's advantage to h^ve supported it.
It is extremely difficult to ask for
road improvements and not be willing
to help get them. If waving a magic
wand would reduce taxes, there would
be a windstorm from the waving, but
no such device exists and increases
must be faced, if not joyfully, cer
tainly realistically. And while we favor
few such increases, it seems that
Franklin's best chance at meaningful
road improvements in the forseeable
future rides with this week's moment
of truth.
It is not a decision for the people
but a decision for the people's repre
sentatives. Their task is a difficult one
and it will be made easier by the
people's understanding. May they al
ways act in the best interest of the
county they represent.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
You Can't Satisfy Them
The Henderson (N. C.) Daily Dispatch
Bureaucrats of the Department of
Health, Education and Welfare seem
to be implacable and a law to them
selves. They grab the ball tossed to
them by Congress and start running
with it, imposing their will upon
helpless 'States and communities
whether within the law or not.
Local school authorities have tried
in good faith to be reasonable in plans
for integration of the public schools.
But each plan submitted to the HEW
dictators is countered with something
different or additional. That ap^
parently is the predicament of the
board of education now. Not only are
proposals rejected, but arbitrary dead
lines are established which local
authorities are given to understand
mutt be accepted, or else.
Except for extremists, the black
people are supposedly resentful of
some of the so-called guidelines of.the
autocrats in Washington. The schools
have been integrated, racial barriers
have crumbled, and efforts have been
and are being made to act in good
faith. But the HEW people are still not
satisfied. They want things the way
they demand period. And will consent
to nothing less. There is no reason
that we can see for continued and
incessant harassment of school boards
who In their own service have forgot
ten more about the welfare of local
schools than the bureaucrats will ever
know.
The Vance County board took its
plan to Washington but was told it
wasn't enough. Now,, whatever has
been agreed upon must again be sub
mitted for approval. It seems to be a
relentless merry-go-round of controls
with the big stick. Two or three
decades ago, few people expected ever
to be browbeaten in such manner by
their own government in what Ameri
cans have thought was a free country
' t. 1
Rustin Comments May Provide
Approach To Situation At College
The News - Journal Raeford, N. C.
About the most sensible and real
istic analysis we have seen of the
spreading college campus-black stu
dent situation came this week from
the lips of a man who ought to'know
what he is talking about. Bayard
Rustin, "Negro civil rights strategist
who organized the 1963 march on
Washington, made the comments to
newsmen who interviewed him before
he was to make a luncheon speech.
Rustin urged college officials to
"stop capitulating to the stupid de
mands of Negro students . . . and see
that they get the remedial training
they -need."
These Negro students, he said, are
"suffering from the shock of Integra
tion" and are looking for "an easy
way out of their problems" by de
manding separate dormitories' and
study programs.
"What the hell are soul courses
worth in the real world?" RuStin
asked. "In the real world, no one gives
a damn if you've taken soul courses.
They want to know if you can do
mathematics or write a correct sen
tence." ?
Rustin said he favors bringing
Negro and Puerto Rican ^youths into
the nation's colleges and universities,
"if it is done with the understanding
that you're going to do remedial work
for them."
He said it is a "cheap way out" for
college officials to give minority group
students separate programs and living
quarters. Some white professors, he
said, desire a "revolution by proxy,"
and are using unwitting Negro stu
dents toward this end. He said Negro
^students, for the most part, are "ill
prepared for college education" and
that there is a lack of "social courage
on the part of this generation of
Negro students."
"We want the agony of educating \
the Negro," he said, was the view of t
many white professors. '
Somewhat inconsistently. It ap
pears to us, Rustin concluded that the
only way out of this "very dangerous
situation" is "another couple of
?chool generations of integration." *
Rustin certainly offered at least a
partial solution before offering two
more school generations as the only
solution when he urged college of
ficials to stop capitulating, and rightly
called this the "easy way out." If they
will stop falling for the application of
group force, and insist that students
be dealt with as individuals, we feel
they will be well on the way. As
individuals they can be helped. It
would be just as wrong to treat them
as a group for remedial training as it
has been to damn them as a group for
a century to second-class citizenship,
and the inevitable result will be to
water down the degrees and standards
of our colleges to where they will have
little value to anyone.
True, as Rustin said, giving in is the
cheap way out, and further, to give in
is to destroy our universities along
with whatever promise they may have
for the future of black students. As
for the white professors who foster
much of the unrest, it is our opinion
that they could start work for the
establishment, or they could pack up.
Remedial training can be admin
istered, and social courage can be
attained, as it has been in this country
by the Irish, the Jews, the Italians, the
Hugenots, the Scottish Presbyterians
and others.
Rustin spoke a mouthful to point
the way, and we would sure like to see
some of those involved in the situa
tion give his analysis some careful
consideration.
. . ? "H?v? you tried jogging?"
The Fr^J^in Times
EatablUxd 1870 - Publtahad Tuaadayt L Thursday! by
The Franklin Times. Inc.
BWwtt Blvd. Dial OY6-3283 Loul?buij, N. C.
CLINT FULLER, Mtiuflnf Editor ELIZABETH JOHNSON.
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
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Bf TO
THINK
OF IT..."
*1
j
by
frank count
If anybody wanted to get a education without going off to
school and paying all that money, they'd do mighty well to
visit some of the country stores. There's a education to be got
in most of them. Of course, a education ain't all that's to be
got there. You can find everything from mule collars to frozen
pizzas but the thing most of them got the most of is
information.
And if there's anything easier than information to get in
these places. I aint never seen it. Right off, that's the first
imng you nui n_-r. ui iuuisc J 1/u IK
gonna fare sorta common til they gets
to know you. They ain't much for
talking to strangers. These boys that
hang around the stores are well trained
and they ain't gonna say nothing agin
nobody unless they know pretty well
who they're talking to.
I happened to drop by my favorite
the other night to pick up a plug of
tobacco and whatever else they was
offering when I took special notice of
two fellows discussing the weighty
issues of the day. The more they
talked, the louder they got and folks
could have heard them in town if
they'd had their TVs turned down. It was better 'n anything
I've seen on TV for years.
The tall one was saying, "Now there ain't no need of you
trying to get all high and mighty about all this stuff going on. I
can remember when you was a boy, you did some pretty silly
things yourself".
The short, fleshy one give him the mean eye and said,
"Leave my wife out of this. I was talking about them college
campuses. I say there ain't no sense in all that violence being
allowed to go on."
"Yeah", said the tall one, "I know what you said. But you
remember when you use to go on them hayrides? I remember
who it was that was always throwing the hay and letting it
blow on everybody. I suppose ysu're gonna say that was
alright"?
"It ain't the same thing", shorty said, "That was fun and I
was having a good time. This is different."
"Oh, yeah", come back the tall man, "There ain't so much
difference. Them youngins is just letting off steam. They don't
mean no harm by what they're doing. I don't mean the
violence but all that other stuff. They're just having a good
time".
By this time, I- felt like joining the short man. I agreed I
didn't think them college students ought to be let alone to tear
up the campuses. And being a man of principle, I said so.
"Who're you", asked Shorty. "Yeah", chimed in the tall
one, "Who asked for your opinion?"
"Well", I said, "Fellows I dont think them students ought
to be let alone to tear up the campuses. I agree with Shorty. It
ain't right. And what you're saying is that it's like pulling a
girl's pigtails or something. That's all I got to say".
"Where you from", a fellow asked over in the corner.
"Yeah", said another poking his head over the counter. He's
been asleep behind the hog feed.
"Aw, come on fellows", I said, "Y'all know me. I'm old
Frank. I know I missed last night, but I was here night before
last. You ain't forgot me this soon".
"Well", said one, "We can't see too well by this lamp and
your voice must be changing. You got to be careful, Frank.
You know better 'n to butt in on a conversation. You could
get into trouble." *
"Well, now that you know who I am, I'd like to know who
them fellows are that are doing the talking. How'd they get the
right to come in here and express themselves. They ain't one
of the gang". '
"Don't rightfully know who they are, Frank", said the
storekeeper. "They just stopped by for gas and started talking.
We figured if we listened for awhile, we might learn some
thing".
By that time the two strangers had left muttering some
thing about folks butting in whenever they wanted to
intelligently discuss some of the major issues
1 didn't feel inclined to discuss anything with the boys
seeing as how they had been unfriendly there for awhile so I
just left them with one thought to ponder.
"Boyi", I said, "As long as we got the caliber men we got
on the Supreme Court, things cant be all bad".
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
The 4-H club sdd in the
Fnnklin Times of May 13th
thanked each local sponsor
and buyer for their excellent
support In the Junior Live
stock Show and Sale. I thank
each one too and also our
County Extension Agents
who helped me throughout
my steer project.
I want to give special
thanks to Mr. Harold Talton,
First-Otizens Bank and Trust
Company *nd to Mr. Jonas
Winston, Youngsvtlle Milling
Company, who bought
stem. The grand champion
and isairni champion re
ceived the highest prices and
Mr. Talton and Mr. Winston
paid the next highest price
for my steers. ,Tbey wan
-r ' * .
there to see me' show my
steers too! Mr. Ray Collins
and Mr. Tom Coghill from
F.C.X. were there In Durham
alao and bid on my ateers.
I hope I will (row up to be
the kind of girl they will be
proud they helped.
Sincerely,
Martha Lou Leonard
Route 4
Loulaburg, N. C.
The beat advice for mod
ern people fadnf all -aorta of
propaganda la the single
,*ord. think.
Weil, boya and glria, It
wont be long before com
mencement oratory will bunt
"Pony?u like an artillery