The Times
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LOCAL EDITORIAL tOMMENT
The Sales Tax Issue
Already in some North Carolina
counties, leaders have begun their
pitch for a favorable vote on the
one-cent sales tax. November is a
short way off.
Given the vote today, chances are
that Franklin citizens would vote
overwhelmingly against this or any
other taxation. Inflation and an al
ready burdensome tax bill are causing
even the most progressive minded
citizens to hesitate before advocating
any new slice of the paycheck pie.
However, all hope for passage of
the tax here is not, at this time, lost.
There is a possibility that properly
presented, enough voters might still
elect this way to gain additional re
venue for the county. Most already
agree that property taxes cannot for
ever continue to carry the whole load.
It is not too early for the Board of
County Commissioners to set out
their plan for the use of this money,
saying the voters approve. The success
or failure of the referendum here is
likely to rest entirely on where the
voter is told the money is going.
For example, it could carry with a
comfortable margin if the voter knew
the money would be used to reduce
property taxes. It might carry if the
voter understood that this one-cent
levy would prevent a tax hike on
property next year.
The measure could gain some sup
port if it was said it is needed to
finance additional industrial growth.
Still others might support it if they
knew it would be used to improve the
schools in the county. Some would be
pleased if it would be used to supple
ment teacher's pay or up other county
employees.
There are many parents who would
be happy to vote for it, if it would be
used to build a county- wide recreation
center for our young people. Some
would like to see additional law en
forcement officers hired or rural fire
departments helped more.
Perhaps any or maybe all of these
things are enough to bring about a
favorable vote on November 4. On the
other hand, it may be that none of
this or anything else will cause the
voter to look favorably on more taxa
tion.
But, one thing appears certain. It is
a totally lost cause unless the Commis
sioners explain fully to the people just
how they propose to use the new
money. Anything less than a full
explanation, is sure to doom the issue.
Shall The Schools Be Saved?
?,??' Viewpoint by Jesse Helms
The basic, ultimate question threaded
throughout the fabric of the federal court
suit brought against school authorities in
Warren and Halifax counties is an ines
capably ominous one: Shall th^public
schools be saved? It is a question that only
the foolish citizen will deceive himself into
regarding as merely a problem involving the
people of two counties.
In a sense, in fact, the awkward and often
ludicrous proceedings in federal court here
last week swept the spectrum in symbolizing
the agonies of federal controls hanging over
the day-to-day lives of citizens. The rights
and authorities of both local and state
governments were being further swept away;
absolute federal control of education ad
vanced by giant strides toward the day when
local administrators and state legislatures are
to be little more than rubber-stamps for a
faraway bureaucracy.
Aa much as anything else, perhaps, the
events in federal court seem to emphasize a
need for ? reform in the federal judiciary. It
la not necessary to catalogue the curious
procedures, or the lack of any procedures at
all, in the federal hearing here to perceive
the fearfully unlimited powers of federal
judges. They are beyond challenge, certainly
from the people, in terms of competence or
falrnesa-or even in matters of procedure.
Federal judges-unlike state judges, from
bottom to top-are appointed for life, and
once appointed are virtually unremovable.
There are good judges and bad in the
federal judiciary, just as any other. But there
seems, among the federal judges, an ever
widening tendency to subatitute-a better
word is impoae-their own personal philos
ophies in school decisions which have no
basis in the Constitution of the United
States or, for that matter, even in the
explicit Supreme Court precedents.
Even In this era of instant communica
tion, the country often seems unaware that
in all of Its sections, there is growing alarm
about the extensions of federal power Into"
the operation of local schools. There is
today great but unorganized concern in the
north, the mid-west and the far west s
concern matching the intensity of the pres
sures for so long confined to the south.
The destruction of freedom of choice has,
understandably, created the largest concern.
Citizens of other sections of the country,
taking for granted the permanence of their
own freedom, paid scant attention when the
combination of federal bureaucracy and the
federal courts confined its whims and ca
prices to the south. But now the freedom to
choose is being denied citizens In other parts
of the nation. People in those areas are
beginning to understand the torture* en
dured by the South, and inflicted by the
power plays of federal politics.
There ought to be a sort of national
seminar to remind and recite the real pur
pose of schools. Somewhere along the line,
the foggy notion has crept into federal
administration, and into the federal courts,
that schools are to be used for integration
instead of education. Even the most
apathetic of parents are beginning to know
better, but they have no sustaining voice to
speak for them, and certainly none in the
federal courts.
Dr. Carl F. Hansen, once an ardent
integrationist, is now trying to warn the
country of the folly crashing down upon it.
Dr. Hansen once was superintendent of
schools in Washington, D. C., and, as such,
he set up a "model plan" for rapid integra
tion of the schools of that dty. His plan
failed miserably, and the schools of the
nation's capital are now jungles of violence
and incompetence. This fall, the schools in
Washington will be 95% segregated -95%
black. White support for Washington's
schools is virtually non-existent.
Dr. Hansen commented a few weeks ago
that the present trend of federal control of
education-the unreasoning use of the courts
and federal regulations to force Integration
"may destroy the (entire) dream of a free
society." Dr. Hansen, witnessing the sham
bles of public education in Washington,
warns that only "a police state with un
limited enforcement power" will be needed
to implement integration If freedom of
choice is destroyed.
Yet politicians and some federal judges
insist upon provoking more shambles. War
ren and Halifax counties are on the tack
now. The foolish citizen who imagines that
this Is no concern of hi* might well ponder:
Who's next? \
The Frafft^n Times
Established 1870 - Published Tuesday! & Thursdays by
The Franklin Times. Inc.
Bickett Blvd. Dial OY6-3283 Loulsbur*. N. C.
CLINT FULLER, Managing Editor ELIZABETH JOHNSON, Business Manager
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
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ASSOCIATION
1969
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In North Carolina: Out 0f State:
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Entered at second class mail matter and postage paid at the PotfOfflcc st Lou tabu rg. N. C. 27549.
Troop Withdrawal
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
The Spoiled Able-Bodied Mass
The News Reporter, Whiteville, N. C.
Three weeks have gone by since
President Nixon delivered his welfare
reform speech and the popular com
ment-people who work must pay to
help those who are able to work but
don't work-has not changed.
The complaint is not aimed at
residents who are unable to work and
need assistance so that they might live
in decency and have the , necessary
food, clothing and shelter they ought
to have.
But take the whole program and
figure the cost, a cost that must be
paid by people who work for wages:
It would double the federal welfare
bill and more than double the number
of Americans who receive some form
of federal welfare payments.
If the bill were enacted in its form
as presented, a family of four would
receive a minimum of $1,600 a year,
or $133 a month.
And, we repeat, this guaranteed
grant must come from the wages of
people Who work.
The fact that the Nixon program
would turn back to the states about a
billion dollars collected from the
states does not ease the pain or lessen
the impact of popular opinion about
the guaranteed supplement.
Many people who take a realistic
view of the program wonder why
non- working able-bodied people
should be mentioned in the measure.
Jobs of the kind and pay the able
bodied men and women want may not
be available. But the likelihood is that
work can be had when one wants to
work.
Too many, though, to use the
popular term, have been spoiled. Why
work when one can live in plenty
without working?
The ultimate aim, to get the able
off welfare rolls and onto payrolls, is
well received. It is this group which
continues to abuse the welfare pro
gram begun over 30 years ago. Over
the years the able-bodied have got
educated. Note, if you will, those
handsome new model cars that cart
away surplus food or transport people
for Food Stamp purchases. The bur
den is stupendous.
The present welfare program costs
federal, state and local governments
an estimated $7.5 billion each year
with more than $4 billion coming
from the Washington till and the rest
from the states and local sources.
Of this gigantic total, about $3
billion goes for the aged, the blind and
the permanently disabled. Most of
these are unemployable and the ra
tional person is sympathetic with this
group, even though it is probable that
better-off kin could assume their bur
den if they were of a mind to do it.
But there remains $4.5 billion
going out in welfare payments. Pre
sumably this is going to the able
bodied. And this is the group working
people are fussing about now and will
continue to grumble about unless cor
rections are made.
It is time for the able to start out
in quest of a different kind of educa
tion.
Every Dog Has His Day
Marion (S. C.) Star
The great American push is for
education.
As state and federal legislatures
assemble each year the ways and
means committees have their hands
full trying to find additional funds to
satisfy the demands of teachers and
educators. Roadside billboards glamo
rize education as a guarantee against
the mundane labors of life. Statistics
are printed to indicate what a college
education can mean to an individual
in dollars and cents over a lifetime.
Sometimes we wonder where it is
all going to end. When we are all
chiefs, who will constitute the tribe?
If everyone gets an education and is
"too good" to do common labor who
is going to do the common labor?
The other night we viewed a pro
gram on one of the national television
networks that featured "the richest
man in the world." He has virtually no
formal education and he says that
education is a hindrance to making
money.
The following night we were read
ing a newspaper article that told of
the high costs of common labor in
certain parts of the country. Sewer
workers, plumbers, electricians and
such were making as much as $30 an
hour and overtime alone would
amount to more than $100 a week.
The article told of men and women
leaving college-education job* to do
the common labor because the pay
was higher/
During this era of the minimum
wage, workers are demanding pay that
is ridiculous and unreasonable. Un
skilled workers expect as much as
skilled workers. The government
makes no distinction regarding ability
and initiative. A man is a man and an
hour's work is an hour's work. So says !
the government.
Did it ever occur to you that
maybe we are trying to over educate
our people? That education might
very well be a hindrance to making
(money) a living?
With all our knowledge and scienti
fic development, computers, auto
mation and the like, there is still a
demand for weak minds and strong
backs. Somebody has to do the "dirty
work."
Many of us will, we believe, live to
see the day when common labor will
be in higher demand than university
degrees.
No, we aren't anti-education. We
don't advocate doing away with
public schools or institutions of higher
learning. We're just pointing out that
there are better days ahead for those
who spend most of their time on the
dunce stools, and school drop-outs.
And -that water will eventually seek
its level.
S U)Vll
I HI N K
Of II
f by
frank muni
I been trying to take out some insurance on my oM buddy,
the editor. I cant find no agent that is willing to handle it. j
figured sooner or later . . .you know. . .and I, being so do** to
him and such a good friend and all-I might as wail maka a
little on the deal.
He ain't smart as me. I don't never git into any trouble.
That's what he gits far all the time writing the truth. I kaap
telling him he ought to! do like me and lie one* in a while.
If there's one thing' folks believe it's lie*. You can tail 'em
the truth all you want to but nothing beats a good (at juicy
lie-especially if it's what they
wants to hear. ^ ^
That's why I said I went to the
moon that time. And I won't sur
prised one bit when a whole bunch
of folks looked for me on tele
vision. Some of them even thought
it was old Frank inside that space
suit that talked to the President. It
won't though. But you aint never i
going to make some folks believe it. '
But my old buddy keeps gitting
into trouble over the simplest
things. Everbody already knows
most of it and them telling it all
around town git along fine. It's
when old buddy tries to earn his
pay and put in the paper what most
folks already knows that he gits in
trouble.
It's kinda like that fellow who
was trying to help his neighbor all he could. He lent hint
money and he hauled his youngins and he fed his dog and to
helped him paint his house and he run business his way-all this
for a long time.
One day he asked his neighbor for a favor and thsfeighbor
turned him down flat. Why, after all I done for you, he asked
the man. And the man said "cause you ain't done nothing for
me lately.
I aint real worried about my buddy. Along about election
time, hell be popular agin. Folks will start speaking to him
and patting him on the back and trying to buy him coffee sod
tipping him off to all kinds of news agin their opponents. It's
just when he tries to earn his pay that he gits hit with tbt
mean eye and quiet tongue.
Right now I know for a tact he's being blamed far al tha
trouble in town. Ever piece of the garbage would a been
picked up if he'd just kept his mouth--or typewriter-shut.
Things in the town office was fine and the Town Council was
just joshing when they talked about cleaning house. It's ever
bit my old editor buddy's fault. If he hadnt reported what
these representatives of the people was doing with the people's
business, he'd a been alright.
And that crowd that got caught hunting where they hada't
oughta. It won't the federal game folks and it wont Dm state
game folks. It won't even the Magistrate that wrote the
warrants. Naw, sir. The whole business was the fault of the
editor. If he hadnt a put it in the paper, the what* thing
would never have happened. Them doves would even be back
alive and flying. Ain't nobody blaming nobody but my editor
buddy. It's ail his fault. He ought to have better sense thaa to
believe everything he reads in a warrant. And besides, souse at
them people live here.
A man was held up and robbed in town yesterday a ad white
I ain't heard it said yet, I know full well, my oM buddy M
gonna git the blame (or that too, just soon as he puts It la tlM
paper. It Shore seems like he aint never gonna learn.
i I keep on telling him it would a been better if he'd juat mM
that the Town Council didnt meet last week. That aoho4y
went hunting atall and if I was him, I shore wouldn't mke a*
mention of anybody getting robbed'
But then, close as we are, he aint never listened to an and I
dont expect he's gonna start now. That's why-yoa see- -I'm
trying to git me a little insurance policy on him. Tlie money
aint for me you understand. I'm gonna build me a Uttle stone
monument for him. I aint figured the inscription yet, but I'm
thinking about saying something like: Here Ilea my awtty
friend; Who wouldnt listen to me; He told It Ilka II waa; aot
like folks wanted It to be. ,
?0 proof
10% etianc*