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LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Natives Are Restless
A 19th century preacher once
wrote that the "inevitable conse
quences of being too fond of glory"
were that we would have "Taxes upon
every article which enters into the
mouth, or covers the back, or is
placed under the foot . . . taxes on
everything on earth, and the waters
under the earth."
In their efforts to obtain the glory
of an all protective government -one
which would take care of the sick, the
poor, the foreign, the aged and
finance the world, Americans have
reached the stage referred to over 100
years ago by Rev. Sydney Smith. We,
as taxpayers, are now suffering the
"inevitable consequences".
Or perhaps it is the consequences
of the glory-seeking peliticans which
we suffer. The elected official, en
trusted with our welfare -as opposed
to public assistance-has learned that
to continue in office he must tax and
spend, tax and spend.
This process has been going on now
for quite a Ing time. Instead of an
swering or eliminating our problems it
has only served to compound them.
Money, it now seems, is not the
answer to all the things plaguing this
country, this state or this county.
And while it has been a long time
coming, the taxpayer is now showing
some signs- however weak they may
be-of becoming disturbed.
Governor Bob Scott's troubles with
a non-cooperating General Assembly
is an example of this stirring. Members
of the North Carolina House are poli
ticians and all we know subscribe to
the theory of tax and spend, tax and
spend. It is reasonable to assume that
more taxes under normal circum
stances, would have made only a few
blush. And surely it is not due to any
lost interest in spending by the law
makers, that brought out the "No's"
last week.
If the rumblings indeed be those of
a taxpayer revolt as some like to term
it, they come late but they surely
come well justified.
Many is the hard working, tax
paying citizen who has time to con
template his world while waiting, cash
in hand, to pay his bill at the check
out behind the man with a book of
food stamps. Armed with the know
ledge that it takes cold hard cash for
him to buy the groceries and doubly
informed that part of the fellow's bill
just ahead of him has come out of his
pocket, too, there is little wonder that
at long last, he begins to stir.
Exposed to Senate hearings where
all kinds of manipulations are being
aired concerning defense contracts
which seem to double between the
time they're signed and the product is
delivered, the taxpayer must begin to
wonder who's looking after his in
terest.
Faced with ever increasing interest
rates on money he has to borrow
- approved, of course, by his elected
lawmakers, the taxpayer must ques
tion who's paying interest on his,
taken out each week -often a year
ahead of its due date.
With alarming regularity, govern
ment on all levels has forgotten that
the man who pays the bill has a limit.
Day by day and almost hour by hour
any taxpayer can avail himself of
information- proof positive-that not
only is nobody looking after his inter
est, nobody apparently any longer
cares.
This may not yet be a full scale
revolt. The taxpayer is known to be
long suffering. Patience has long been
his main virtue. But the signs are
becoming impressibly clearer. Some
thing is amidst. The taxpaying native
has, indeed, become restless. And it's
about time.
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Old Glory On The Moon
The National Aeronautics and
Space Administration has finally
announced that Apollo 11 astronauts
will plant an American flag when they
land on the moon next month. It is a
sign of our times that there was ever
any question about this.
Since the days of Columbus, the
flag of the country footing the bill has
been hoisted over any new discovery.
Most people would have taken for
granted that Old Glory had earned the
right to be first on the moon.
But there were- and still are-some
who advocated that the flag of the
United Nations should be raised first
on the moon. This, they say, would be
a gesture of goodwill. Where are the
gestures of goodwill from member
nations of the U.N.? Most of them
don't even bother to pay their dues.
Certainly, none have shared in the
cost of the United States space explo
ration.
Fountain Comments On Tobacco
Washington, D. C. -This week's to
bacco battle in the Congress has end
ed, but the war against tobacco goes
on, and if Anally won. would bankrupt
the Second District and much of
North Carolina. This we must prevent.
Excessive cigarette smoking, like ex
cessive anything else, may be harmful.
Representing an agricultural district, I
am naturally partisan, but I am al9o
unalterably opposed to the "big broth
er" decisions of government, which are
gradually destroying our freedom.
And, since so many of our own
people probably believe the anti-to
bacco propaganda. I'd like you to read
parts of what a member of the House
Interstate and Foreign Commence
Committee says. After listening to
every witness during the tobacco hear
ings, Congressman Richardson Preyer
of the Sixth District of North Carolina
said:
"Congress has the duty to warn the
American people of dangers to their
health, whether arising from tobaccd
or any other product. It also has the
duty not to go beyond the tacts in
doing this.
"I approached the tobacco hearings
from this point of view. Being from a
tobacco state. I was determined to aee
that tobacco got a fair hearing but
knew that the health of our people
came before the health of the tobacco
industry. I thought that the medical
facta would prove to be very bad
Indeed. Like most of the public, I
thought that a case against tobacco
had been made by disinterested and
well-Informed groups acting on behalf
of the public -such aa the U. S. Sur
| eon General and the Public Health
Service -and by certain health organi
zations, such as the American Cancer
Society, the American Heart Aaaocia
tion, and the National Tuberculosis
and Respiratory Disease Association. I
thought that It was only the tobacco
industry and the tobacco farmer-both
' having a substantial self-interest- who
questioned the scientific facts.
"This was vary naive. After sitting
through 13 days.of hearings and listen
ing to every witness, the picture that
emerges is precisely the opposite. The
case presented by the "public" wit
nesses was characterized by argume
ntativeness. overreaching, and one
sided advocacy. If you looked for
expert medical and scientific testi
mony and not hearsay, it was to be
found almost entirely from witnesses
produced by protobacco forces. For
example, not a single witness for the
antismoking forces testified to any
research which he himself had done,
while over 20 witnesses testified in
person or by written statement that
their own research cast serious doubts
on the theory that cigarettes cause
disease . . . They were leading patholo
gists. thoracic surgeons, and statisti
cians, men of impeccable credentials
whose opinions cannot be bought.
"If I had not Mt an obligation to
hear the entire proceedings, I probably
would still be; accepting the conven
tional wisdom on the subject of ciga
rettes and health. Mark Twain said,
"It's not what we dont know that
hurts us, it's what we do know that
isn't so." khave been astonished at
how much information that isn't so is
"known" by so many people on this
subject. If there is a strong scientific
case linking cigarettes and disease, it
has certainly not been made in these
hearings. The case made at these hear
ings is simply this: cigarettes may or
may not be harmful to your health.
Factors other than cigarette smoking
may well be the cause of lung cancer,
heart disease, and emphysema. This
(Joes not mean that we should en
courage our young people to smoke.
On the contrary, it may be harmful to
some individuals who had better not
start. But It does mean that we should
not treat the case against smoking as
proven. This simply blocks further
research concerning the gaps In our
knowledge. It means restrictions on
the sdvertislng of a legal product of a
major industry where no caae had been
proved are not justified. It also means
the present label on cigarette packages
Is an accurate statement of the facta
"The evidence In the recent hear
ings cries out for a re-evaluation or a
reopening of the Surgeon General's
Report of 1964 A caution
should be given to our major voluntary
health agencies-the American Cancer
Society, the American Heart Associa
tion, the National Tuberculosis and
Respiratory Disease Aaaociation-and
to our governmental agencies -such as
the Public Health Service, the FCC and
the FTC--to hold up until more (acts
are In and more questions answered.
"The best that can be said of the
testimony of the major health agencies
is that it was well-intentioned. But any
objective trier-of-the-facts would be
very concerned about these matters:
(1) The agencies themselves produced
no witnesses who had done indepen
dent research. (2) Agency witnesses
were woefully misinformed about
some bask facts. For example, they
testified that "smoking causes the
lungs to turn black" (untrue); or,
"your chances are better at Russian
roulette than they are of smoking and
not Impairing your health." (The fact
is that flve-one-hundredths of X per
cent annually of all smokers develop
lung cancer). Or, that "there Is an
epidemic of lung cancer In this coun
try." (Fact: respiratory death rates in ''
1900 were over five times what they
are today. There is a declining rate of
Increase In lung cancer, indicating that
the incidence will level off In the next
few years.) (3) Many of their state
ments are seriously misleading . . . The
statement that "heavy smoking will
shorten your life by 8 years," is highly
speculative . . and baaed on a statisti
cal study by an employee of the
American Cancer Society who did not
testify and who has refused to disclose
the raw data in his studies so as to
permit Independent evaluation. Is this
the way to get at the facts?"
The above remarks come from one
of the most ftte members of the
"Committee Jury "-also an experienc
ed lawyer and former Judge who has
practiced the art of fairness snd objec
tivity. Many tobacco battles lie ahead,
but honest and proper basic research Is
the only way to bring the war Itself to
an end.
Congress got into the act recently
and a couple lawmakers flat out told
NASA that the Stars and Stripes
would fly first on the moon or they'd
cut off the money. Not too surprising
ly, NASA suddenly become most
patriotic after this little nugget of
news arrived.
And so, now Old Glory will be
planted on the moon. It might not be
a big thing but to the lowly taxpayer
who has slaved all these years to help
pay for the trip, it'll be good to know
it's there.
E
by
frank count
I ain't got me one of them Miss A. Land is files but every
now and then I get balled up with a mess of little things that
need to be got off my chest and ought to be passed on to you
folks. So today is clean up day in case any of you got any
place to go right now.
There's a newspaper columnist up in Browning, Montana
named M. K. fields. He writes
for the 1400 -circulation Glacier
Reporter and he says he saved
his readers $2.5 million in the
last two weeks.
The way he figures it, he says,
the government is spending
$4,281 every second and it takes
Ave minutes to read his column
-he must not have much to say.
Anyway, he didn't write his
column for two weeks and at the
government's rate of spending
$1.28 million every five minutes, he says he's saved his readers
some $2.56 million.
Now who said us columnists don't wear white hats?
We run across a little thing done by Rob Wood for the
Associated Press awhile back and we been hanging onto it for
quite a spell hoping to git a chance to pass it along in case
some of you ain't no Associated Press readers.
Cousin Rob played a guessing game and then give the
answers. He asked for instance What's the county seat of
Macon County? It ain't Macon, according to him. It's
Franklin. Macon's in Warren County. And everybody in this
whole wide world knows good and well what's the county seat
of Franklin County. Don't they?
Then he asked What's the county seat of Washington
County? He said it's Plymouth and that Washington is in
Beaufort County and that Beaufort is in Carteret County. He
also said thank the Lord there ain't no Carteret. He said the
town of Columbus ain't in Columbus County. It's in Polk and
Polkton is in Anson County and Whiteville is the county seat
of Columbus.
Greenville ain't in Greene County, neither. It's in Pitt but
Pittsboro aint. It's in Chatham. Graham ain't in Graham
County. It's in Alamance and Davidson ain't in Davidson
County. It's in Mecklenburg. Rockingham is in Richmond
County and not in Rockingham County.
Old Rob went on for quite a spell with his name dropping
and finally asked What's the county seats of Durham, Camden,
Wilson and Halifax-Counties?
Well, of course, anybody knows that. It's Durham, Camden,
Wilson and Halifax. It says so right here in his piece. Aint you
glad Franklinton is in Franklin County? There's less confusion
that way.^
KNOW SALE
The manager of a local Department store was puz
zled recently when it was discovered that a certain
cash register showed more than 100 "no sales." An
investigation disclosed that a teen-age clerk was
punching the "no sale" button every time a customer
walked away without making a purchase.
YOU ARE INVITED ? ANYWAY YOU LOOK AT IT!
Louisburg Sportswear
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SUNDAY
JUNE 22
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