The “Get The Whole Story”Man
He promised success, .alked religion,
and knocked Ted Kennedy -- and the
audience loved it.
He was Richard DeVos, president of the
Amway Corp., the direct-sales company
that boasts sales of $1.4 billion behind the
slogan, “get the whole story.” DeVos,
speaking to an overflow breakfast crowd
Wednesday morning at Gardner-Webb
College, delivered what one listener called
“a real stemwinder.”
“Is success sinful?” DeVos asked his
audience. The executive seemed sure of
his answer: “The admonitions about
money are all correct,” he said, “but I
have never found a poor person yet who
could help another person.”
Economic self-help and charity, he told
his audience, is the result of “being a
builder, a creator, a person with our
relation to God straight.”
Anyone who has ever built a business,
DeVos said, has been at that stage. And
only builders can help the poor: “We can’t
share it until we have it,“ he told his
audience.
Ted
That led to a partisan blast:
Kennedy doesn’t know about building;
he’s never built anything,” said DeVos,
finance committee chairman for the
National Republican Committee.
DeVos’ was applauded several times
throughout his speech, and he received a
standing ovation at its close.
DeVos, 56, spoke at the campus as a
Broyhill Academy lecturer. Afterward he
spoke with the View about:
Amway’s 1978 purchase of the Mutual
Broadcasting System: “It was our feeling
that the electronic media was not
necessarily neutral in its presentation (of
the Amway Corp.), and in fact we felt that
alot of the networks were pretty well
biased to the left.” He had also intended
to buy a magazine, DeVos said, but is “not
necessarily” still in the market for print
journalism.
on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC):
“they said we had done price fixing. We
forgot to put on our price list the word,
‘suggested.’ Therefore we had price-fixed.
We decided that wasn’t worth arguing
about. (The FTC in 1979 dismissed
charges against Amway of pyramiding
franchises and fixing prices, but instructed
the company to allow its distributors to
discount prices, which previously had been
discouraged).
on current sales: “Our sales last year
were estimated at retail at $1.4 billion. Net
sales were $1.1 billion on revenue dollars.
We have 7000-plus emolovees now.”
on ms giant competitor Proctor &
Gamble with $6 billion in sales.: We don’t
pay any attention to them. You don’t waste
your time worrying about it.”
''We can’t share it until
y^e have it.
ft
The Broyhill Academy lecture series has
previously sponsored Republican congress
man Jack-Kemp, co-author of the Kemp-
Roth tax bill, and Patrick Ross, president
of the B.F. Goodrich Tire Company. All
lectures are open to the public.
The Foothills View
Second Class Postage Paid In Boiling Springs, N. C. 29017
THURS., FEB. 4, 1982
a
We See H Your TFay”
$7.00 Per Year Single Copy 15 cents
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Holland Withdraws
Four From Town
No Future Park
Run For Board
Half of the eight candidates seeking the
two seats on the county school board live
or work in Boiling Springs. They are:
Tommy Greene, Bill Latham, Lavon Laye,
and Lonnie Proctor. A fifth local candidate,
Diane Holland, withdrew from the race on
day after filing.
“Due to the tremendous response shown
in the filings of candidates,” Mrs. Holland
said, “I feel ii is in the best interest of the
Cleveland County schools to withdraw my
candidacy.”
Holland’s withdrawal still leaves a filled
with familiar faces to Boiling Springs
residents. Greene is manager of the
Cleveland Sandwich Company; Latham is
Boiling Springs postmaster; Laye is
personnel director at Ora Mill; and Mrs.
Proctor is a professor at gardner-Webb
College.
All seek their first term, although Laye
ran in 1980. Incumbent Kenneth Ledford
also is running lor his second term on one
of the two chairs up for election this year.
Area News
The Cleveland County Cattlemen’s Association will
have its annual meeting on Monday, February 8th at
7:00 p.m. at the County Office Building. Election of
officers for 1982 will be the main business. Annual
dues of $5.00 will be collected. All area cattlemen are
invited to attend.
Pianist Ruth Anne Rich will appear on the
Gardner-Webb College Artist Series Tuesday,
February 9, at 8 p.m. in the O. Max Gardner Recital
Hall. The program will include “Sonata” by John
Boda, “Variations on a Theme of Handel” by
Brahms, and “Preludes, Op. 28” by Chopin.
of them,” Spencer said.
Topics will include such things as marketing,
money management, energy and computers.
Speakers will include John Sledge, president of the
N.C. Farm Bureau, and J.E. Legates, dean of the
School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State
University.
Spencer said that persons interested in attending
should contact Randy Sweeting at the Cleveland
County Extension Office.
Young Ueveland County farmers wno want to
exchange ideas with other young farmers from
across North Carolina can do so in Greensboro on
Feb. 19-20.
These are the dates for the North Carolina Young
Farmers Forum, sponsored by the N.C. Agricultural
Extension Service and the N.C. Farm Bureau
Federation.
Frank Spencpr, Cleveland County agricultural
extension chairman, said the forum has been planned
with the help of 10 young farmers from across the
state.
‘‘We believe the forum will zero in on the needs of
people who have most of their fanning careers ahead
The Sports Committee of the Greater Shelby
Chamber of Commerce announced today that they
are seeking, from the general public, applications for
the Sports Hall of Fame. This award is given each
year tp that person selected as having made the
greatest contribution and/or brought recognition to
our community in Sports and Recreation.
In making the nominations, the following criteria
must be followed:
The person being nominated must be a native of
Cleveland County, or must have lived in the county
during his or her significant achievements.
The nomination must be submitted to the Chamber
of Commerce no later than February 10, 1982, and it
must be in writing,
Mail nouiinations to Chamber of Commerce P.O Box
«79. Shelby, N.C. 28150.
Boiling Springs will not have a town park
any time soon.
The proposed park was tabled indefinite
ly by the town council at its Tuesday
meeting, two and a half years after Boiling
Springs received a federal grant for the
project in July, 1979. Rising costs since
then were among the reasons cited by the
council for its action.
Council tabled plans for the park despite
an offer of additional funds from a
scholarship established by local athletes.
John Searight, who represents ^rp
basketball I players David Thompson and
Artis Gilmore, had offered $92,000 to the
town at December’s council meeting
toward the cost of a park. Searight
repeated his offer Tuesday.
“I think this is a most generous offer,”
said Mayor Jimmy Greene, “but I
personally would rather see the basic
services such as water iines are provided,
and (that) we deal with the organizations
that are already providing recreation.”
Greene then made a motion not to
continue with the project, and it carried
unanimously.
Chances dimmed for the park after
council learned in January that the
construction costs for the project may have
increased 17 percent from the orginal
estimate in 1980 of $228,607. At that time
the town appropriated funds to match the
federal grant for a total of $175,000. The
Thompson-Gilmore fund was to make up
the difference between that total and the
costs - a donation of about $92,000.
Greene cited declining tax revenues and
uncertain maintenance costs in urging the
board to abandon the project. “It’s one
thing to birth something, it’s another thing
to rear it and maintain it,” Greene said.
Earlier council had asked Thompson and
Gilmore to fund maintenance of the park.
Tuesday night Searight reported that they
had declined.
Thp fact , that the town would forfeit
federal money if it chose another site also
vitiated support. Greene said that he had
heard citizen dissatisfaction with the site
initially proposed, a plot owned by the city
off Homestead.
Federal money for the park still will be
available to the town until 1983 under the
conditions of the grant, according to Iris
Rose, chairwoman of the town’s recreation
committee.
Searight said that the money Thompson
and Gilmore would have donated for the
park will be returned to their foundation
for the distribution as scholarships to
students in Cleveland County schools.
In other action, the council
discussed cablevision television service
with Robert Wall & Associates, who
offered to wire Boiling Springs homes to
receive up to 18 television stations from
his Atlanta-based cable company. Further
discussion was scheduled for the March
meeting.
heard Jim Marler, director of the
Cleveland County Historical Museum,
request an annual $2,500 appropriation in
the town’s budget: “Lot s of your people
have been involved with the museum, such
as Dr. Wyan Washburn and Mr. Stanley
Greene,” he told the council. “We’re not
just a Shelby museum,” he said. We’re
like the college out here, we’re an
educational institution. Except we teach
with 3-dimensional objects, not text
books.”
The council said it will take his request
under advise'qient.
arran#isd for meeting between town
engineer Marion Packard and the J.M.
Pease consultipo firm for an estimated cost
of repairing the town’s pipes.
The council then went into a closed
session. Afterward it announced its
decision to buy the 1.2 acre tract between
town hall and Cary Walker house. No price
was given.