County sinking airport effort Members of a citizens' blue ribbon committee, who spent more than a year of volunteer service studying the Raeford Airport, should be angered by the Hoke County Commission's failure to ap point members to a governing body for the facili ty. After long meeting hours, the committee zeroed in on the problems at the airport and developed a list of recommendations which were designed to improve operation. Before the airport could be put in order, the committee suggested that a commission be ap pointed by the Raeford City Council, the Hoke County Chamber of Commerce and the county commission to oversee the operation. As of last week, both the city council and the Chamber have made appointments. In order to get into business, all the new airport group needs is two members to be named by the county. The matter was first addressed during the later part of 1983 when the county voted to join the ci ty in the maintenance and development of the air port. Since then the county officials seem to have forgotten the matter., Almost six months have now passed, and there is little evidence that ap pointments are being considered. The airport is viewed as being an essential ele ment in this county's industrial recruitment ef fort. However, because of poor past manage ment, the airport has developed a reputation of being unsafe, and the tax dollars which are used to support the facility seem to be benefiting only a small segment of the population. We believe the county commission should stop dragging its feet on the appointment of two air port commissioners. The appointments should be made while the new group still has time to organize and plan a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Further delays in the appointments could jeopardize the formation of the commission and could put Hoke County further behind in the race to gain new industry. Editorials City on line with CP&L bid By refusing to knuckle under to pressure from Carolina Power & Light (CP&L) to renew a 60-year franchise agreement, members of the Raeford City Council have taken an incisive step toward the future and have demonstrated strong qualities of leadership. In a recent counter proposal to CP&L, the city suggested slicing the franchise term to 30 years and bringing the matter up for review after 10 years. If successful, not only will Raeford become one of the few muncipalities in the CP&L two-state service area to have a short term agreement, but city officials will have also provided future leaders with an alternative to dealing exclusively with the Raleigh-based utility. One alternative may be for Raeford to develop a city owned retail electric utility. Many other municipalities have found it profitable to pur chase the wholesale power from producers like CP&L and then to resell the electricity to customers. In many cases the electricity is provided at a lower cost, and profits are used to reduce proper ty taxes. In addition, by questioning the 60-year CP&L pact, Raeford officials have nothing to lose and may have gained an edge for future bargaining. For example, city officials have suggested that if CP&L were willing to assist with moving utility poles off of Main Street to aid downtown revitalization efforts, the 60-year franchise might be more acceptable. Although some may view the council's stand as tilting at windmills, we believe the city officials should be commended for safeguarding the in terests of their constituents. A 60-year franchise with CP&L would outlast most adults currently living, and it is heartening that these Raeford leaders are taking that into consideration when negotiating the agreement. Computerized crime is on big upswing By Cliff Blue State FBI Agent Robert L. Pence, says white collar crime is rising fast in North Carolina. Pence was quoted by the Associated Press as saying the average instance of computer crime involves the illegal transfer of $621,000. According to the National Chamber of Commerce, such com puter crimes and other white collar crimes amounted to more than $40 billion last year. It appears that when officials get one section of crime down, another one raises its head larger than the one that was stomped down. DRUG USE DOWN...Good news is that the use of drugs by high school students continued to decline in 1983. The National In stitute on Drug Abuse, which con ducts a survey every year, says stu dent interviews reveal a six percent decline in the use of illicit drugs in the past four years. The number of seniors who smoked marijuana was down by nine percent in that period. Daily use of the weed has dropped from 10.7 percent to 5.5 percent. Over 16,000 students were con tacted in the survey, both public and private schools. And while the percentage decline is gradual, only a point or two each year, the numbers of individuals these percentages represent are substan tial. Commenting on continuation of the downturn, Dr. William Polin, Institute director, says the latest figures show beyond doubt that the shark rise in drug abuse in the 1960's and 1970's has halted after peaking in 1979. BRITISH AIRWAYS...An nouncement is that British Airways will begin its Concorde service to Miami, March 27. That will make the Florida metropolis, and gateway to Latin America, the third U.S. Concorde city. Concordes are the world's only supersonic airliners. They fly much faster than the speed of sound and can cross the Atlantic, from New York to London in three hours! People & Issues HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE ... More than 37 million American adults are believed by medical scientists to have high blood pressure. Nearly 32,000 deaths resulted from this disease in 1981. FARM PERCENT...At last count, about 1 in every 41 people, or 2.4 percent of the total popula tion was a farm resident, says the American Council of Life In surance. SMOKING...A life insurance company study found that the average life expectancy for a 32 year old nonsmoking male is 79 years. For men the same age who smoke, it's 72 years - 7 years of life gone up in smoke! HEALTH CARE COST...The health care bill in 1982 came to $322 billion, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's $1,365 for every man, woman and child in the country. INFLATION...Has the dragon of inflation been slain, or will it flare again if the economy con tinues to improve strongly through 1984? Some forecasters are predic ting inflation rates of 6 or 7 per cent for 1984, sharply up from 1983's rate of 3.2 percent -- which was the lowest increase since 1967. Among questions being asked by the economics skeptics: ?Now that the economy is recovering at a brisk pace, won't demands for higher wages bring renewed upward pressure on prices? --How can we run federal budget deficits of $200 billion or more without overheating the economy, bringing a renewed inflation surge? -Isn't it true that the election year will bring more government spending and monetary ease, which will have clear inflationary consequences? "These and other inflationary forces are still at work in the economy," agrees Kenneth M. Wright, vice president and chief economist of the American Coun cil nf | jfe Insurance. cv # Hi , I'm Bubbd and i li-Ule. broker fAoost. Our ? Kadi\yn, Cou\drc. u^\\\\^ rooo due. rca'son^ Noe^ond v>er- cooVro\. SV"\e ^VnovjAcSi \oc. ^oac-V. oe.*V v-oec-Vk, V \oJ>Vn \ cW \ \rr\<_ \jjt vjjA\ ^r-o^o^oXv^ ^oe f?eeXvr*^ ^oVV>c^\ a?^wr?\." Early Raeford banker helped Hoke County By Robert Gatlin A few days ago, someone, a native, asked me if John Moore was with The Bank of Raeford some years ago. My answer was yes, 1 believe he was with the Bank in the begin ning. The question then was did I know who he married, was she a Fields? This question arose in his mind because he knew that Miss Lillian Fields Moore was buried here recently - My answer was that John Moore did not marry a Fields; Lillian Fields Moore was Ben F. Moore's daughter. John Moore and Ben Moore were brothers. John Moore lived on Central Avenue in the house Neill McDonald tore down a few years ago. ... . _ . Mr. and Mrs. John Moore had two sons and four daughters, David, Pender, Margaret, Martha Macon, Jacksie and Evelyn. Mr. and Mrs. Ben Moore lived on Fulton Street and had two daughters, Lillian Fields and Frances Bennett. Lillian Fields never married and was buried here in the Raeford Cemetery. John Moore was a banker, farmer, real estate dealer and had the first dairy in Raeford located on Racket Alley (about where McNeill & Willis Garage is now). Return on farming is worry B\ John Sledge N.C. Farm Bureau There are slightly more than a billion acres of farmland in the United States. That sound like a lot, but when you divide it by the population, it comes out to an average of four and one-half acres per person. Only two of those four and one half acres are suitable for the pro duction of food and fiber. And if most people attempted to grow their food and fiber needs on those two acres, they'd likely starve to death and have no clothes. About 98% of us have a farmer to tend our two acres and it's only through his efficiency in produc tion that we end up getting more food and fiber from our two acres than we can use. What do we do with the rest? We try to sell it overseas and that's beneficial to all of us in more ways than one. Exports keep a farmer's production up and his costs down and that gives us cheaper food. In addition, total farm exports make jobs for more than a million non farm people in the United States. Your two acres are dwindling in size. Fifty years ago, you had about five acres for food and fiber. With less land, we have to hope that U.S. farmers get even more ef ficient than thev are now. The big gest concern should be the dwind ling number of farmers and the dwindling profits from farming. Using today's figures, most farmers can get a better return on their mony by putting it in the bank than they can get by using it to farm. That's something for all of us two-acre absentee farmers to worry about. Looking On Ben Moore was a merchant and a farmer. His farm was located on the Rockfish Highway across from where Scurlock School is now. It was known as "Montcrist Farm". John Moore's farm was on the north side of the Rockfish Road where Scurlock School is now and was named "Peachmont Farm." Maps of each farm was recorded in the Register of Deeds Map Book in the Hoke County Courthouse. John Moore The News-Journal ?a PublisM (>?) Tkandi) b> Dirksoa Pr??, Inc., Paal DWuo?, Pre*. 119 W. FJnood Avmwe. P.O. Bo? 550 Rarford, N.C. 2*316 SuhM-nplkin Rain la Adtiatr In ( Mil) Prr Yrar?$10.00 t Monlhj S5 00 Out of C ount) Prr Year?$12.00 6 Moalht?$6.00 I.OI.IS H. FOGLEMAN, JR. PublWwr WARREN N. JOHNSTON Editor HF.NRY L. Bi l l:.... Prodarlton Saprrvtaor MRS. PAl'l. DICKSON Soctri) Editor SAM (.MORRIS (oatrttnllaf Editor ANN WEBB . AdvrrttUaf Rrpmcalati?r 2ad (law Pott at* at Harford. N.C. (USPS MS-2M) Itinerate Culture returned to Hoke County By Warren Johnston Culture had taken the day off in Raeford. A bunch of us were sitting around at a meeting of the Hoke County Culture Club trying to get him back on the job. "You know, if he doesn't start working soon, we'll have to drop him from the club name," one member said. There was a good deal of grumbling among the membership over that one. Nobody wanted it to be called just the Hoke County Club. "Without Culture, we might as well go home and watch televi sion," another member said. It was a pretty good night for TV. One station was doing a "Three's Company" marathon. But the idea of disbanding the club was not appealing, and the muttering continued. "I hear he is back with his old girlfriend and is hanging out in FayetteviUe," I said. y ? * Yes, Culture was seeing his old flame Sophistication again. There was a play in progress, and the couple had been spotted holding handsin the third row of the theatre. There were also rumors that her parents wanted the couple to set tle down and make a permanent home on what we considered to be the wrong tide of Little Rock fish Creek. "Reckon we could go over there and haul him back to Hoke County?" one member asked. Well, everybody took to the idea of going to FayetteviUe and m: ' The Puppy Papers Culturenapping like a sow to a mud puddle. Before long, we had climbed into the Bluebird, and we were off to the big city. We figured that the element of surprise was on our side. After all there had been so much publicity about us being poor in Hoke County, that no one would suspect we might be able to afford the ride to Fayetteville, much less to buy the tickets to the play. The trip over went well. Sadie Louise led us in a few df the club's favorite traveling songs. The old Bluebird really started rocking when we broke into "Ninety-nine Bottles of Beer" and then finish ed up with "John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith." "You know, if anybody had been listening to us sing, they would have thought that we had Culture right in here riding with us," Sadie Louise said, as we arrived at the theatre parking lot. We swarmed in through the swinging doors, and headed for the third row. Culture was slumped down in the seat eating from a big box of Milk Duds. Sophistication had been sitting next to him, but when she saw us coming, she got up and ran. "I do wish Sophistication wouldn't scream like that every time she sees a group of Hoke Countians," Sadie Louise said. "I'm beginning to take it personally." "Sophistication has been under the weather," I said, knowing that Culture had been trying to nurse her back to health, but was finding the task difficult. She was apparently suffering from a diminishing perspective, which had been brought on by living too long in Cumberland Coun ty, her doctor had told her friend. "Well, I'm not surprised," Sadie Louise said. Culture seemed glad to see us, and when we told him we'd come to take him back, he insisted that we stay for the play. It was a mystery. After Culture clued us in on the play's nuances, we understood it better. We were prepared to launch into a round table discussion, when someone reminded us that the theatre had no tables at all, much less a round one. We were incensed. We stormed out of the place and stomped for the Bluebird. Sadie Louise had Culture by the ear and was dragging him along behind her. "The idea. I have never heard of theatre that didn't have a round table," she said. "I'm so mad I could spit," she added. The ride back was pleasant. We harmonized on the choral por tion of Beethoven's Ninth and finished up the Milk Duds. As we piled out of the Bluebird, we vowed never to let Culture leave Hoke County again. He agreed to stay but made us promise to invite Sophistication over for at least one weekend visit.