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LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Dark Side Of The Moon Appears
In the beginning of 'the school
desegregation move it was decided by
those who had pushed the 1964 Civil
Rights Act and those who had foster
ed the 1954 Supreme Court decision,
that the blame for whatever such a
move might bring should be placed as
far away from themselves as possible.
It was decided that the least harmful
place of all to them would be the local
school boards.
When this decision was finalized,
there must have been great shouting in
the sacred halls. Truly this was a
political masterpiece if ever one had
been devised. Local school boards had
neither the finances nor the political
power to fight back. So, early in the
movement, it was decided that the
local boards would be the patsies.
Congress passed the Act in July of
1964, but put off its effective date
until January 3, 1965. The Congress,
while willing to pass this legislation,
lacked the stomache to enforce it
Obviously, had this law applied equal
ly to every section of the country and
had every school system been required
to obey the law together on the date
of its enactment, it would never have
passed in the first place.
No, the answer is now clear. Con
gress wanted to appease the liberals
who were crying for such legislation as
a monument to President John Ken
nedy and it was passed in emo
tionalism following his tragic assassi
nation the November before. Once, it
was decided who the goats would be.
Congress could have its cake and eat it
too.
Implementation of the law was
given to Health, Education and Wel
fare. That its been a hot potato is
obvious. Who ever heard of HEW
before it became involved in school
desegregation? Now, it was HEW's
turn to make sure all the blame was
placed on local school boards. HEW
actions have been so well publicized,
they hardly need repeating here. Pri
vately HEW officials pressured local
boards with harrassment, threats of
the cutting off of funds and finally
with turning the case over to the
Justice Department for court action.
Local boards knew from the start to
buck HEW was futile. Yet, HEW
authorities allowed that it was not
they, but local boards that were
operating the schools. Desegregation
plans were the brainchild of local
authorities they said. HEW has done
an outstanding job of making local
boards of education the goat in dese
gregation. 4
Even the courts have joined in in
many cases. Local boards are ordered
to come up with a plan. When the
local plan fails to satisfy the courts,
another plan is ordered. This con
tinues until the local boards have
devised a plan suitable to the court.
True, it is a local plan, but what
choice was there?
In hundreds of school systems
across this country there is no inte
gration. Federal officials have looked
the other way--mostly southward.
Washington is apparently scared to
tackle such financially powerful and
vote- heavy districts as Houston,
Texas, Chicago, III. (although Presi
dent Johnson made one stab at it and
now President Nixon has moved in
that direction) and even nearby Ra
leigh. There are too many votes in
these places for HEW to push too hard
and the boards of educations have the
resources to make sure that they do
not shoulder the blame for decisions
made by someone else.
All this makes many local boards
look bad. How can some justify dis
ruption of their schools when neigh
boring systems continue as they were
before 1964? If integration is good for
some children in one system why is it
not good for all. If its bad, why not
bad for all? Every system should be
treated alike. And it should be made
clear just where the decisions are
being made. One thing is certain, it
has been a long time since local boards
made them.
Here in North Carolina, the ultra
quiet Department of Public Instruc
tion has been jarred out of its slumber
by a recent decision by federal Judge
Algernon Butler. The federal jurist
ruled this week that the State could
not be removed from the Johnston
County case. In effect. Judge Butler
said that the State has as much obliga
tion to push desegregation as do the
local boards.
Back in the fifties, when North
Carolina went to the Pearsall plan as a
result of the 1954 Supreme Court
ruling, operation of schools was sup
posedly given to local boards. The
State wanted no part of all the con
fusion to come. This way, the State
Department could join Congress, HEW
and the courts. They, too, could make
the local boards the whipping boy.
Well, the federal court has now
moved to eliminate this. The State, in
light of this week's ruling, is going to
have to carry its sharqjrf the load. If
North Carolina public education falls
by the wayside, the blame must here
inafter be shared. Congress has felt the
rath of the people in recent months
and some voters are waking up to the
fact that Congress has a share of the
blame and needless to say, the public
is now wide awake to HEWs game.
So, the dark side of the moon
suddenly appears. Local boards of
education are beginning to be viewed
once again with some degree of under
standing. There hasn't been any re
ports of burning a board in effigy in
months. The people are beginning to
realize that the whole business was
designed to make their local neighbors
the scapegoats in a national tragedy
not of their making.
It's about time the instigators of
the plot were brought to light. But
then, give a man enough rope, as the
saying goes.
The FrajikJin Times
%
Established 1870 - Published Tuesdays & Thursdays by
The Franklin Times. Inc.*
Blckett Blvd. Dial GY6-3283 Louisburg. N. C.
CLINT FULLER. Managing Editor ELIZABETH JOHNSON. Business Manager
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
Advertising Rates
Upon Request
ASSOCIATION
1969
SUBSCRIPTION. RATES
In North Carolina: Out of State:
One Year. $4.64; Six Montha. (2.83 One Year, $6.60; Shi Months, $4.00
Three Months, $2.06 Three Montha, $3. 50
Fntered as second class mail matter and postage paid at the Post Office at Louisburg. N. C. 27349
cmsedI
R??
& 4aL?,
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Could Raise Or Lower Own Taxes
The Smithfield Herald
To paraphrase an old saying, you
cannot avoid death and taxes. But the
old saying is not exactly true. North
Carolinians may not be able to avoid
all the tax increases imposed by the
1969 Legislature, but they can avoid
some of the increases by exercising
some options.
The Associated Press has figured
that the tax increases will amount to
approximately $60 a family-that is, a
family of four that drives its one car
12,000 miles a year, consumes two
packs of cigarettes a day, drinks three
six-packs of soft drinks a week, plus
two six-packs of beer and a pint of
whisky.
The AP itemizes the effect of the
tax increases: "The gasoline tax would
amount to $16 a year, and the cost of
the auto license tag will go up $3. The
tobacco levy would add $14.56, the
soft drink tax would amount to
$9.36, and the liquor tax will rise by
$8.32 until July 1, 1970. After that it /
will be $12.48. When it buys a new
car, this family will pay an additional
$15 as a result of an increase in the
sales tax. The cost of a $200 boat will
go up $10."
The tax increase for many Tar Heel
families will be considerabjy greater
than $60 a year -the families that
consume more than a pint of whisky a
week, the ones that stock -up heavily
on beer and soft drinks, the ones that
include' heavy smokers, also the
families that drive two or more cars
and run up mileage well beyond the
12,000-a-year mark.
And, of course, the increase will be
much less than $60 a year for the
families that exercise their options to
drink less or not at all, to smoke less
or not at all, or to calm down the
go-go spirit that keep the family car
(or cars) constantly on the road.
Encouraging Future Lawlessness
9 ?
Mount Olive (N.C.) Tribune
After reading reports in the daily
press on the Klan-Negro shoot-out in
Hyde county Friday night, we don't
know who's to blame. But the out
come as finally determined by State
Police when they moved in contri
butes nothing toward the desirable
end of discouraging such incidents in
the future.
It boils down to the fact that both
the Klan and the Negroes were wrong,
that neither should have been shoot
ing at anybody. If the Klan had
retained its composure in the facr of
provacation by Negroes driving by,
perhaps nothing further would have
occurred. Or, if the carload of Negroes
had reported the shooting and left it
to the law, as they should have dpne,
there would have been no further
incident between the two groups
apparently, for according to repofts
the Klansmen never left their legally
owned property during the entire
affair, including the "war" which
followed when some 100 Negroes
appeared on the scene with guns.
It also appears that the law officers
were in the wrong. In spite of obvious
evidence that both sides were using
firearms unlawfully, and each side just
as unlawfully as the other, no arrests
or attempted arrests were made
among the Negroes. Only Klansmen,
still on their own property, were
seized and disarmed. Fortunately, in
juries from the gunfire were few and
not serious: One 12-year-old Negro
girl was woulded in the leg, presum
ably from the Klan gunfire, though
the report didn't say. It didn't say,
either, what a 12-year-old girl was
doing there. Nobody else was hit
except some of the officers, by gun
fire from the Negroes. Yet, no
Negroes were arrested or disarmed.
We don't want to be interpreted
here as defending the Klan in any
sense. There are no services which we
desire from them, any more than from
the Black Panthers and their kind
These two groups are on opposite
extremes from reason, although the
activities and publicly declared aims
of the latter make the Klan look
Sunday schoolish by comparison.
But please <tt> interpret us as de
ploring the one-sided action of law
officers in this incident. It can do
nothing but encourage two tragic be
liefs in opposite quarters: One, that
anything done by a large enough
group of Negroes will go unpunished;
and two, that there will be no help
from the law for whites in such
confrontations. As we understand it
that situation after the Civil War is
what gave birth to the Klan in the first
place.-EB.
How Does This Grab You?
The Courier-Tribune, Roxboro, N. C.
According to the publication
"Commerce", important federal go
vernment research projects include:
"Mating Calls of Central American
Toad Frogs," cost $21,200; "Sexual
Incompatibility in Higher Fungi", cost
$4,800; "Social Dominance Behavior
of Rodents," cost $28,000; "Heet and
Water Balances of the Camel," cost
$31,200; "Respiratory Mechanisms of
Cultivated Mushrooms," cost $8,000.
THINK
OF IT..."
f by
frank count
There ain't many (oiks in this world has a harder time than
I do. My old pappy use to say . . . "Frank", he'd say-he
always called me Frank--"YouH git along in the world 'cause
you got a good (ace". My ole pappy was pretty smart. Bad as I
hate to do it thought I got to say he was only hal( right that
time. I have got a good (ace.
Just to show you what I mean . . .you take the other day.
The other day while the little woman had a gang o( girls over
to the house quilting, I come in with my overalls on. Well, sir,
she nearly pitched a (it right there. She would have, but she
didnt want the girls to know we dont get along too good. She
thinks they think we're still on our honeymoon-whatever that
is.
She got me over in the corner and give me what-for.
"Frank", she said-she always calls me that, too~"You got to
get you some britches like them other men wear. I'm sick and
tired of you coming in with your overalls on. I had a thought
auuui inii rniurk uut i kv|a ii to rnyseil . l
wont born yesterday.
"If you don't go get you some new
britches, I'm gonna leave you", she said.
Well, 1 knowed she wont going to do what
she said, but I went to buy some anyway.
The first store I got to, a pretty girl come
shash-shaying up and asked if she could help
me. She could, I told her. I wanted to buy a
pair of blue britches. What size she wanted
to know. I didn't know what size. If it'd
been overalls, I could have told her.
When I said I didnt know what size, she
grabbed a long strip of numbered paper and
grabbed me around the waist. I nearly
fainted. I aint never been so embarrassed. I
knowed I had a good face, but being
modest-as I always am--I didnt know it was
that good. I jumped back scared as you
know what and she purred, "I am not going
to hurt you." She said it so pretty, I stopped
jumping. My blood all stayed in my face, but
i stopped jumping. She measured me. When
she got through, she just smiled.
'"How long should your trousers be?" she asked. Well, long
enough to cover my shoe tops, I told her. "No, I mean do you
know how many inches In length you've been wearing," she
said. I didn't naturally. And here she come with that tape
again. I got to admit, I wont scared no more and I didn't jump
one bit.
But when she started to measure I'm here to tell
you . . . that wont no place (or old Frank. No, sir. I'm brave
as the next fellow and I know how good looking I am and how
some girls just cant help it, but I aint never going back there.
No, sir. If that's what it takes to buy a pair blue britches, It's
back to the overalls.
Down at that next place, I seen there wont nothing but
men in there so I decided to give it one more try. "I want to
buy a pair of blue britches",- 1 told the boy. "I want some with
pleats," I said.
"Sorry, we dont carry pants with pleats any more," he
said. "No pleats?" I said. What kind of pants you got young
fellow I asked him. "Bell bottoms are the latest things," he
said. "Bell bottom*?", I yelled. -"What in the world is bell
bottoms?" He showed me. You wouldnt believe me. They
took that little bit of cloth It took for pleats and made the
bottom of them britches big enough to wear upside down.
"You got any blue ones?" I asked. "No, sir. Blue is out this
year. Bright colors are in. You want to see a stripe or a plaid or
perhaps a check?"
Well, here I was. Threatened at home if I wore overalls;
attacked In that other' store 'cause I looked ao good in them;
and now I was down to stripes, plaids and checks with wide
bottom*. Aint many folks in this world has a harder time as I
do. <
I made out like I'd be back and went out fast as I could.
Next place I told the man I was just looking. He walked off
and I started hunting for a pair blue britches. I didn't think
he's mind if I unpiled some of his britches while 1 looked. He
did, though. He said ao. But finally I spotted a pair blue ones.
The color was just right. I called him over. "Mister", I
?aid -since I didnt know his name-"I1l take that pair blue
britches right there".
He almost cried. "Sir", he said. "I'm sorry but you dont
want that pair. Let me show you something else". "Walt just a
minute," I said getting somewhat irritated. "I got the money
and I want to buy that pair right there." He got irritated too. I
could tell. He grabbed up the britches, wrapped them, took
my money and told me goodbye.
When I got to the door, I asked him how come he didn't
want me to have them blue britches. "Because, tiir", he sakl,
"they're ladles trousers". Alnt nobody has as hard a time as I
do.
THE SUMMING UP OF 1968
56,800 deaths
a 6% increase over 1967
4,400,000 injuries
200,000 more than 1967
Accidents involving speed resulted in more than
800,000 casualties in 1968
One third of the drivers involved in fatal accidents
were under 26 years of age
40% of the deaths and 88% of ^??injuries
occurred on Saturday ancTSunday
4 out of 5 deaths occurred on dry roads
in clear weather
More than 66% of the deaths occurred
during the hours of darkness