The Fralklin Times
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Your Award Winning County Newspaper
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Inviting The Buzzards
A front page article today relates
the disappearance of several window
air conditioners belonging to the
county.' It is conceivable that all are in
proper places doing proper service to
county-sponsored agencies. However,
there is no assurances that this is the
case.
Since seven are accounted for four
purchased and paid for and three
others where the county could get
them, if necessary-the concern is for
the remaining eight (two sources re
port five).
As far as can be reasonably deter
' mined there is no county office with
any record what so ever on this
property, purchased at some time in
the past with the taxpayer's money.
There ought to be a better way.
It is possible that somewhere some
body is enjoying a free cooling at the
taxpayer's expense. The units belong
to all the taxpayer's and somewhere a
record should be kept as to their
whereabouts.
This brings to mind, the thousands
of dollars spent on other furniture and
fixtures contained in the courthouse
and other county buildings. One must
speculate if the same records are being
kept on this county property as were
being kept on the missing air condi
tioners.
If not, there must be some reason.
Granted that most people are honest,
business is still business and the tax
payer's business should be operated as
efficiently as anyone else's.
If several air conditioners disappear
from a building almost wedged be
tween the courthouse itself and the
local police station, what could hap
pen to furniture and fixtures in build
ings not similarly located?
If there is a record of exactly what
the county owns by way of equip
ment, furniture and fixtures, it should
be made public. If there isn't such a
record in existance at present, one
should be made post haste.
If, as one high official said, the
chickens got the air conditioners, it
would seem in the absense of ade
quate record keeping, we might be
inviting the buzzards.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Local Option Sales Tax, R.I.P.
The Chapel Hill (N.C.) Weekly
Eight years ago. Governor Terry
Sanford managed to persuade the Le
gislature to broaden North Carolina's
sales tax. The total impact on family
budgets was far from shattering and
the extra revenue had been earmarked
for a noble cause, to raise the disgrace
ful level of public school teachers'
salaries.
Nevertheless, the taxpayers were so
rankled and unforgiving that when
they were later faced with a vote on a
bond issue, also to finance worthy
causes, they killed it dead.
The taxpayer has just been tapped
(perhaps slugged is a better word)
again by the Legislature, largely at the
Governor's behest. But the situation
today is vastly different from what it
was eight years ago.
Because of the new taxes recently
enacted, a man finds himself paying
more for beer and whiskey (up to
$1.44 more a case for brew and 20
cents a fifth for booze). Gasoline costs
him anywhere from 30 to 50 cents
more a tankful.
Bank loans will cost him more, and
if he wants to build a house and can
find someone willing to finance it,
that will cost him more too.
In October, cigarettes will cost him
from 2 to 5 cents more a pack. Soft
drinks will go up, probably 5 cents a
bottle, to take care of a 1 -cent crown
tax. Then, beginning in January, he
will have to pay more for his auto
mobile license tag.
The revenue from these new
sources was needed, some of it criti
cally needed. 8ut that is not about to
take the curse off the new taxes, any
more than dire need took the curse
off Terry Sanford's broadened sales
tax in 1961.
To salt the wound, many local
governments in the State are having to
raise taxes to meet pressing needs.
Here in Chapel Hill, for example, the
Board of Aldermen is working on a
budget that could raise taxes by as
much as 25 per cent. If the Aldermen
go at the budget with a meat cleaver
they might be able to hold the in
crease to as little as 15 per cent.
Orange County's tax situation is not
so depressing, but some sort, of in
crease can be expected there too.
This, of course, does not consider
the federal tax drain on the family
budget or the deep inroads being
made by inflation.
Against this backdrop, voters in all
the State's counties will decide next
November on local option sales taxes.
Those counties which approve the
additional one cent will get half the
proceeds, with the other half being
pooled and distributed on a per capita
basis.
Conceivably, the local option tax
could relieve some of the pressure on
ad valorem taxes ad it would certainly
ease local governments' financial
binds. But that, it appears, will be
largely beside the point.
From the mood of the taxpayer
today -and it figures to get blacker by
next November -the local option sales
tax already is deader than Terry San
ford's bond issue which has been
moldering in the grave all these years.
Given the build-in inequities of local
option sales taxes anyway, it's pro
bably just as well.
The Frafiltfin 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: OutofStaU:
One Ymt,$4.64; Si* Months. (2.83 One Yaar, $5.50; Six Months. $4.00
Three Months. $2.06 Three Months, $3.50
Filtered iccond elsai mail mallet ami postage paid al the Pott OfTVcc si Louisburg. N C. 27549
Man In The Moon
W^IAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
When Bad Luck Is Good Luck
Written in the form of a letter to
his electric power company and entitl
ed, "Why I Haven't Sent My Check--A
Letter From A Businessman," the
following eloquently portrays the des
perate condition of a growing number
of people in this country:
"You asked me why I have not
sent a check in payment of the bill I
owe you, and are threatening to turn
off my current. Let me explain.
'The present condition of my bank
account is due to laws -federal laws,
state laws, county laws, city laws and
trade association laws. The only laws
that do not affect my small business
are outlaws. We never have been rob
bed illegally; only by elected and
appointed officials.
"Because of these laws of many
kinds I am compelled to pay taxes- a
business tax, amusement tax, head
tax, bank tax, school tax, gas tax,
-'light tax, water tax, sales tax, excise
tax, auto tax, phone tax, sewer tax,
garbage tax, fire tax, highway tax and
income tax. -
"These laws also require to me to
get a license at varying fees for my
small meat store-a business license,
refrigeration license, retailer's license,
sanitation license, inspection, license,
weigher's license, dairy license, cater
er's license, delivery truck license and
interstate deliverer's license. I bought
two licenses voluntarily, a marriage
license ahd a dog license.
"My trade association insists that I
contribute to causes. I have given to
the Red Cross, Community Chest,
United Fund, Girl Scouts, Cub Scouts,
Brownies, Salvation Army, Heart
Fund,' Cerebral Palsy Fund, Muscular
Dystrophy Fund, Child Care Center,
Old Folks Center, Fund for the Blind,
Fund for the Indigent, four hospitals,
four churches, one synagogue and two
volunteer fire companies.
"I have one employe. I must pay
his Blue Cross, Blue Shield, unemploy
ment compensation, workmen's com
pensation, Social Security, retirement
pension fund and company life insur
ance premiums.
"For the sake of my bank, my
creditors and my business, I am re
quired by law to carry life insurance,
property insurance, liability insurance,
burglar insurance, fire insurance, acci
dent insurance, windstorm, flood and
earthquake insurance and freezer-loss
insurance.
"I must pay these premiums
promptly or my insurance, like my
electricity, will be turned off.
"I am suspected and disrespected,
and while I am bled white to maintain
a constant flow of money to other
people, there simply doesn't seem to
be enough to go around.
"Please do not turn off my elec
tricity, for due to a miraculous stroke
of good fortune, you will get your
money. While chopping a loin of pork
this morning, I was lucky enough to
miss and completely sever my thumb.
It was insured. The money will arrive
next week, at which time I will
immediately endorse the check and
forward it to you.
"I shall be grateful for your pa
tience. ?
"Sincerely yours
Anaheim (Calif.) Bulletin
Fixing To Read This Piece
W. E. H. in Sanford Herald
How many times have you heard
the North Carolina Southern expres
sion, colloquialism perhaps, "I'm fix
ing to go up town?"
Or perhaps: I'm fixing to cook
some steaks for supper. Or fixing to
go to Raleigh. Or fixing to get a
haircut or hairdo. Or fixing to take a
nap and get some rest.
Fixing to do something is a way of
life for folks down south. Nowhere
else in the nation, so far as I know, is
this expression used.
It's about as permanent in our
native vocabulary as "I'm go cut my
grass today," which is a short and
non-scholastic way of saying "I" going
to cut my grass today."
The use of fixing must go way back
into the folklore of our people. The
dictionary says of fixing: it's the act
or process of rendering permanent. As
to fix the same book defines it: to
rest, to settle or remain permanently.
I'm fixing to close this little piece
up, and can think of no better way to
do it than to say I've said all I can
about it.
I hope you were fixing to read it
Quote of the Week: Breckenridge,
Minn. Valley Alert columnist Newell
Grant wrote in his column u"Alert
Speaks" on things that bug him:
Senator Kennedy, a military strategist
ranking somewhere between General
Custer and Nasser, who insists on
attacking all Vietnam war decisions."
'COME
TO
THINK
W OF IT..."
by
frank count
I don't usually spend much time hanging 'round the
newspaper office. It ain't that it ain't a pretty good place. It'?
just that it don't seem proper to hang around. Might give the
place a bad name.
But now ind then I get called on for advice by the boys In
the back room and being the
forgiving sort, I always for
give them for all they done to
me and this column and help
them out. It ain't like I want
to do this, you understand,
but I usually do.
You see. them boys in the
back room are good boys.
They ain't heavy hung with
intelligence, you understand,
but goodness they got. They
don't know about all this new
modern technology and stuff.
And when the screw got more 'n two heads, these back room
boys get lost. That's when they call on old Frank.
It ain't that I know everything. I'd be the first to admit, I
don't know everything. But to be perfectly fair and honest, I
got to admit I know most everything.
Well this ought to set the stage. The boys got in a new press
last week and they needed old Prank to help get the thing
going. I was glad to be of assistance. They had their problems
alright.
All the thing-a-bogs and thing-a-ma-gigs come. They was all
in good shape when they was unloaded. Looked like any child
could a put it together. But wait. There's more. Along with all
the stuff the company sent something else. They sent a
Yankee. That's right. They sent a Yankee to supervise. And if
there's anything in the world a Yankee thinks he can do
perfect, it's supervise folks from the South.
Well he couldn't git along with the electrician. He didn't
win no awards with the welder arid I thought the plumber was
gonna kill him outright. The boys in the back room spent the
whole week muttering about knives, guns and poisons.
I thought . . . being as educated as I am ... I could get
everybody together and get the job done. This was a mistake I
was to learn later. You can't get a Yankee togkher. Unless
that is, you put him with another Yankee. It ain't that they
ain't folks-although some doubt it-it's just that they're
somehow blessed with more sense than anybody else. It's a
strange thing to me how come the good Lord give everybody
north of the Mason-Dixon line more brains than he give the
folks South of the line. This has always been a mystery to me.
I'd rather get the answer to that question than to play with
them moon rocks.
But it seems that's the way it is. This Yankee said the sign
that said turn here didnt mean to turn here. It meant
something else so he turned something else. That made the
boys work three hours overtime.
"Yankee", I said, "Why don't you listen to some of them
boys. That 'electrician been lectrifying for sixty years. He
ought to know something. That welder been welding (or nigh
on fifty years and he ought to know something. And that
plumber been -plumbing for nearly forty years. You could
learn by listening."
"Mister", he said, "I do not know what capacity you have
in this place but I do not take suggestions. The company sayt 1
do not have to take suggestions. I do not have to touch any of
this machinery. I am here to supervise. How many presses have
you installed?"
Well it wont no need of him getting personal about it. I
aint supposed to install no presses. I gets paid for what I know
and I told him so. And he said, you must be on welfare.
But, even though I was bom in the South, it wont
yesterday. So I come up with a plan. And it worked. I called a
good friend in a far away southern state and told him he had
trouble with his press and I knowed where he could get a
expert repair man. I told him where to call and to say it was
urgent and I told him to ask that they send a Yankee 'cause
that's the smartest kind.
Just when it looked that all was lost and the back-room
boys would never get home, the phone rung.
"Boy", said the Yankee, "I know this will come as a blow
to you but I have to leave you. There's trouble down south
and I must go and advise another newspaper. I am sure you
understand. I hope you can get someone else to assist you."
And he was gone. "Boys," I said, "Why dont you try
pushing this button here that says 'Stafi 1/ and see what
happens." ^
YouH never guess. When they pushed the Start button, It
started. And-heaven help him-if that Yankee knowed that,
he'd surrender. It was just luck, you understand. Southemm
aint smart 'n Yankees. They're just luckier.
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