The Johnstonian-Sun
VOL. 25
SELMA, N. C., THURSDAY, JUNE 18, 1942.
Single Copy 5c
NUMBER 25,
s
In Thousand-Plane Raid on German City
First picture of a bomber crew, composed entirely of Australian fliers,
standing by the Stirling bomber that came back from the great raid on
the German industrial city of Cologne. Crews from all parts of the
British empire were participants in the raid in which more than 1,000
planes rained high explosives and incendiaries, doing terrific damage.
Gas Ration Units
Have Double Value
Washington, June 14.—Motorists
who have used up all the units on
their “A” and “B” ration cards were
warned tonight they will be unable to
get more gasoline for the next 30
days unless they first convince a lo
cal rationing board of their need.
The office of Price Administration
made the statement shortly before its
order raising the value of each unit
from three gallons to six gallons went
into effect at midnight, along with a
rubber salvage campaign by which it
is hoped to avert nationwide ration
ing. The unit value was doubled to
enable motorists to continue to oper
ate their cars until July 15 when a
permanent and more stringent east
coast rationing system goes into ef
fect.
Originally this plan was to have
started on July 1 and the temporary
cards now held by motorists were in
tended to meet their driving needs
only through June 30.
“Some motorists have the impres
sion that if their units are all used
they should automatically receive
more units for the two-week period
between June 30 and July 15,” said
Joel Dean, chief of the fuel ration
branch of OPA. “This is not the case.
The cards now in use were issued to
car owners with enough units to pro
vide for their gasoline needs through
June 30.
“Motorists who have been using
their cars only for necessary driving
should have a proportionate number
of units left on June 15. These units
now have double the value they for
merly had, and should, therefore, el-
low card holders enough gasoline for
a period twice as long. In other words
with the units on their cards, card
holders should be able to get enough
gasoline to last them, not for two
weeks, but for four—until July 15.”
The person who applies to a local
rationing board for an additional gas
allowance is not entitled to it simply
because he or she has exhausted all
ration card units, said Dean. The ap
plication must be based on actual
need for additional gasoline between
now and July 15, he asserted.
Registration for the permanent ra
tion books will take place on July 1,
2 and 3 at local schools. Only “A”
books containing 48 coupons for the
coming year will be issued. Eight
coupons may be used during any 60-
day period, starting July 15.
SELMA YOUTH IN
NAVAL RESERVE
Atlanta, Ga.—Selma, N. C. sent
another young man into the armed
services when John Clark Diehl, Jr.,
enlisted for Naval aviation training
in the Naval Reserve.
Diehl, 19, is the son of Mr. and Mrs.
J. C. Diehl. A graduate of Selma high
school, he attended N. €. State Col
lege for nearly two years. He has had
nearly two years of ROTC training
and previous CPT flight instruction.
Enlisted Wednesday at the Naval
Aviation Cadet Selection Board, the
young Selma man will soon be order
ed to one of the Navy’s new pre-flight
schools at the Universities of Georgia
and North Carolina. Officer pilot in
struction will follow at one of the Na
val Reserve Aviation Bases and at
one of the three great Naval Air
Stations in Pensacola, Fla., Jackson
ville, Fla., and Corpus Christi, Texas,
where advanced instruction will quali
fy Diehl for his Navy Wings and a
commission as a young flying officer.
Parole Sought For
James E. Tharrington
Your county has a War Bond Quota
to meet this month. Is your own
household budget apportioned so that
you will put 10 per cent into war
Bonds ?
Seen and Heard Along
THE MAINDRAG
:By H. H. L.
James E. Tharrington, who has
served less than four years of a 25
to 30 years sentence for the killing
of John McMillan, Selma filling sta
tion operator, in 1938, is. having his
counsel prepare the necessary papers
asking for parole within the next 15
days, it was announced Friday by
Bunn and Arendell, who represent the
prisoner.
Tharrington was found guilty of
second degree murder in Johnston
county Superior court, following one
of the most sensational trials ever
held in the county, and the' sentence
was passed by Judge Hubert E. Olive
on July 30, 1938.
Fallowing the trial and sentence of
Tharrington, Paul McMillan, adminis
trator on the estate of his brother,
John McMillan, brought civil action
against Tharrington for the wrongful
slaying of his brother.
In October, 1939, a compromise was
entered in Johnston County Superior
Court whereby the McMillan estate
was awarded $7,500. Court records
are reported to show that to date only
$1,500 of the above amount has been
paid.
Lawrence Wallace
Heads USO Drive
Lawrence Wallace, Smithfield at
torney, has been appointed by Govern
or Broughton to lead the drive in
Johnston county to raise Johnston
county’s quota in the USO drive,
which has been set at $1,500 for the
We just happened to run across the
following — some time ago when
PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT visited
the State, CARL GADDY, popular
Selma attorney, was standing near
the President when he overheard him
ask his secretary for a cigarette—the
secretary fumbled in his pockets and
told the Chief Executive he was sor
ry but he did not have one—CARL
immediately pulled out a package of
Chesterflelds and presented MR.
ROOSEVELT with one—“thanks, my
kind friend,” he told the Selma law
yer—the President then asked for a
match and CARL kindly obliged him
with a match—WALT GODWIN will
have a birthday on next Sunday,
Father’s Day—^he is entitled to two
presents—the many friends of CHIEF
GRIFFIN, who has been seriously ill,
will be glad , to learn that he is im
proving and hopes to be out again
soon.
year.
Governor Broughton is honorary
chairman and George M. Ivey, of
Charlotte, is State Chairman for
North Carolina.
The goal set for North Carolina is
$444,000, and the national goal set
for this USO War Fund has been set
at 32 million dollars.
Mrs. Brock’s Father
Dies At Rose Hill
WAKE MAN HELD
IN WRECK DEATH
Kiwanis Program Put
On By T. L. Hedgpeth
T. L. Hedgpeth of the Carolina
Power & Light company, conducted
the program at the Selma Kiwanis
club on last Thursday evening.
Mr. Hedgpetji is one of the new
members of the club, but he demon
strated that he is a live Kiwanian
and that he knows all the local Ki-
wanians and their respective avoca
tions. He called each one by name
and told the kind of work he was en
gaged in; and by way of a little hu
mor, the speaker introduced a few
reasons why it would be best not to
meddle in the affairs of these boys
who are more or less specialists in
their respective lines.
After surveying the membership,
Mr. Hedgpeth said he found that al
most every phase in the industrial,
commercial, professional, social and
religious life of the community is
represented in the Kiwanis club here,
which he thought was a mighty fine
thing.
'On motion of Kiwanian H. H. Low
ry, chairman of the Music Conimittee,
and seconded by Dr. E. N. Booker,
Mrs. D. M. Clemmons was elected
sponsor of the local club, succeeding
Miss Naomi Smith.
The club voted to change the meet
ing hour from 7 ,to 7:15, in order to
give the merchants of the town who
are members of the club, an opportu
nity to get there on time, since they
close their stores at 7 o’clock.
Chief Bradley Pearce was appoint
ed program chairman for tonight
(Thursday) and we understand that
a splendid program has been pre
pared.
Those Tires You Need
Are Barred by Speed
Mr. Jacob H. Rouse, prominent cit
izen of the Rose Hill section, died at
his home on last Thursday evening at
8 o’clock, after a lingering illness. He
was the father of Mrs. Archie L.
Brock, of Selma.
Funeral services were held from
the home Saturday afternoon, the bu
rial taking place in the Dunn City
Cemetery.
Sergeant V. R. Mallard of the state
highway patrol, says that patrolmen
are being instructed to take the li
cense numbers of trucks and busses
traveling at a speed of more than 40
miles an hour.
Specific information regarding ex
cessive speeds by busses and trucks
has been requested by Federal au
thorities and will be turned over to
rationing boards for possible use in
withholding permits for tires.
The patrol officer also called atten
tion to the fact that President Roose
velt has appealed to all motorists to
cut their speed to 40 miles an hour
or under to conserve rubber for the
war effort.
“The state speed limit for passen
ger cars is still 60 miles an hour and
it is not a violation to drive over 40
miles an hour,” Sergeant Mallard
said. “However, the highway patrol is
hoping that the public will cooperate
and follow the President’s appeal by
voluntarily cutting speed to below 40
miles an hour.
Vacation Church School
To Begin June 22nd
Aid for Greece
Harward Under Manslaughter
Charge; Sampson Negro Was
Eilled in Crash.
Buck Passing and Jealousy
Crippling Law Enforcement
D. L. Harward, 36, of Raleigh, was
released Sunday under $1,000 bond on
charges of manslaughter in connec
tion with the death of Samuel Wil
liams, Negro of Newton Grove, in an
automobile collision near the Johnston
-Sampson county line early Sunday
morning.
Patrolman H. C. Bobbitt, who in
vestigated the accident, said Harward
was driving alone at the time.
Almond Lockamy, another Negro,
was seriously injured and is a patient
at a Fayetteville hospital. Melvin
Lockamy, driver of the car, escaped
with minor cuts.
Harward was traveling toward
Clinton, while the Negroes were com
ing toward Smithfield when the left
front of the Raleigh man’s car hit
the left rear of the other vehicle,
causing the latter to swerve around
and roll over, Bobbitt said.
Harward is scheduled to appear
before Magistrate E. C. Jones Thurs
day for a preliminary hearing. There
will be no coroner’s inquest, said Pa
trolman Bobbitt, who was authorized
by Coroner E .N. Booker to have the
body removed.
King George II of Greece, who
arrived here for a series of confer
ences with the President to plan aid
for his conquered country. He was
a guest at the White House.
Farmers Facing New
Tire and Gas Problem
Johnston County farmers are warn
ed by members of the County USD A
War Board, local leaders in the war
time farm production drive, that both
repair parts and tires for farm cars
and trucks will become increasingly
scarce during coming months and
that vigorous conservation efforts
must be undertaken immediately, said
County Agent M. A. Morgan one day
this week. Mr. Morgan is Secretary of
the Johnston County USD A War
Board.
The board urges that farmers give
immediate thought to ways of cutting
down on driving, such as “share-your-
car” and “share-your-truck” methods
of neighborhood pooling.
The President, in his message to us
told of the seriousness of the rubber
situation. Preference ratings with
local tire rationing boards won’t do
any good when the tires are gone, nor
vW!! there be any more repair parts
after automobile supply shelves have
been cleaned out, declared P. B.
Chamblee, war board chairman.
“You should drive your car and
your truck as carefully as though
you weren’t expecting a replacement
tire or repair part for the duration,”
he said. “Every farmer should let his
neighbors know when he goes to town
and offer to take them or run errands
for them. All of us should drive just
as little as possible, but when a trip
is necessary it should serve more than
one family.”
Mr. Chamblee said that the tire
situation is far more serious than
most people realize. He pointed out
that Japan haS' captured the Far
Eastern area which used to furnish
98 per cent of the U. S. rubber. The
stock pile on hand is being used ra
pidly for military needs, and there
will be no new tires for civilians. It
will be some months before there will
be much synthetic rubber produced,
and most of this will go for war pur
poses. Simarly, crude rubber from
Brazil and from the Guayule plant,
as well as reclaimed rubber, must go
toward winning the war rather than
making tires for civilians.
“It’s a case of no tires, no new
trucks, and a shortage of repair
parts,” the chairman declared. “But
I know we can lick it .instead of let
ting it lick us. We’ll have to dust off
our old-time spirit of pioneer neigh
borliness and work this out together.
Our job is to produce food that will
win the war, and get it to market. I
know we can do both.”
The Vacation Church School at the
Edgerton Memorial Methodist Church
will begin June 22 and will continue
through July 3.
Registration will be held Saturday
afternoon at the church from the
hours of 3 to 5 on June 20.
Plans are being made to take care
of the children and young people be
tween the ages of 4-16.
The interest that has been mani
fested points to one of our best years
in this growing work in our church.
We are inviting all the children and
young people of the community to
come and share the good times with
us.
Thorough Investigation Needed To
Assure A Giean-Up Of Sore Spots
By TOM LASSITER
(THE SMITHFIELD HERALD)
Law enforcement in Johnston county is ridden with political
jealousy, crime-breeding' indifference and denial of responsibility,
wilful negligence in the performance of duty and political favori
tism, and apparently nothing short of a deep-boring investigation
by public representatives having the fortitude to let findings
speak for themselves will clean out the cankerous spots and give
the people the kind of protection they deserve for their tax money.
■* Last week produced a case in
point. Smithfield township’s Constable
BEASLEY IS HELD
IN GAMBLING CASE
Smithfield Man Convicted
County Court of Running
Gaming Room
in
Smithfield, June 16.—Charie Beas
ley, prominent business man of
Smithfield, was tried in Recorder’s
Court Tuesday morning and found
guilty of possessing slot machines
and running a gaming room for the
purpose of gambling.
Judge Larry Wood fined him $250
and gave him a suspended six months
road sentece.
Beasley gave notice of appeal to
Superior Court, and was required to
post a $300 bond.
Judge Wood had ordered the slot
machines destroyed and the money
divided between the raiding officer
and charity, but the appeal stayed
this order pending the outcome in the
higher court.
The officers found two slot ma
chines, one in Beasley’s filling sta
tion and one in his store, and dis
covered a room fitted up for gam
bling. ‘
A companionate case was one sworn
out by Beasley against B. Q. Yates
for giving him worthless checks for,
he claimed, cash. Yates said he was
paid in gambling chips and not in
cash. Judge Wood found Yates guilty
of passing worthless checks and tax
ed him with the court costs, but
would not require him to make good
the checks, amounting to $70.
Chairman Bingham
Talks Rubber Again
War Bonds Offered For
Most Rubber Salvaged
The county salvage committee has
announced a contest to stimulate the
rubber campaign which started Mon
day and will continue until July 1.
A $50 war bond will be awarded
to the person or organization that
sells or donates the most waste rub
ber during the 15-day period ending
June 30. and a $25 war bond is of
fered as second prize in the contest.
The prizes are made possible by oil
dealers, auto accessory firms and
garages of the county, which are also
cooperating in promoting the rubber
drive through the newspaper.
Contestants must submit their en
tries to Chairman C. E. Bingham of
the county salvage committee or leave
them at the salvage office in the
Thornton building, where Miss Ada
Flowers is in charge.
Entries must show bills of sale
bearing the signature of an authoriz
ed junk dealer, including all filling
stations. If rubber' is donated, a re
ceipt should be obtained showing the
weight.
The contest will be decided by the
county salvage committee.
To All Chairmen And Spotters:
I wish to advise that I am in re
ceipt of a letter from Mr. James B.
Vogler, Executive Secretary, who has
forwarded me a letter , from Mr.
Donald M. Nelson, from Washington,
stating that our rubber situation
keeps getting worse every day, and
he is begging us to do everything
within our power to collect any scrap
iron, and rubber of every description,
and get it into the right channels to
get to the manufacturers. In other
words, last year there was used for
civilian purposes in the United States,
seven hundred thousand tons of rub
ber. This year he advises that we will
only have one hundred and fifty tons
or 21 per cent of the amount avail
able last year. In fact, he states that
the biggest stock piles of the United
States is in automobiles, so you can
easily sqp the importance of every
man doing his little part to get old
tires, tubes, hot water bottles, rubber
pads and overshoes - in fact, every
thing made of rubber in the line of
production.
We have recently had a little good
news from the battle front, but you
kno wlots of times we get too opti
mistic and lose the ball game in the
last inning. Let’s not get too opti
mistic and lose the war in the last
inning.
The WPA truck that I wrote you
about some time ago, is now in opera
tion, making a house to house can
vass. Last week - which was the first
week - the driver collected about 30,-
000 lbs. of metal and about 2000 lbs.
of old rubber.
Now each of you boys have a job
to do, and the way I see the thing,
it is just as honorable for a man to
walk down the middle of the street in
Smithfield - or any other town -
with an old tire or metal for war
purposes, and get it to where it will
go into war production, as it is for
a man to go down town and buy de
fense stamps or take a gun for his
country.
We urge your cooperation with the
President’s all out for rubber drive.
June 15th to June 30th inclusive.
Yours very truly,
C. E. BINGHAM
Unecessary spending in war times
is sabotage - whether conscious or not
Your dollars are needed for war pro
duction. Help your state meet its War
Bond Quota. ii_
Your pocketbook and your check
book are no longer just symbols of
what you can buy for yourself and
your family. War Bonds are for you
and your family - also for your coun
try. Youystate has a Bond Quota to
meet! Retaber tliatl
Joe Royall led a raid on a business
establishment within a mile and al
most in view of the county courthouse
—Charlie Beasley’s filling station and
store suspected of carrying on gam
bling operations. Game Warden Bill
Norton and two members of the state
highway patrol—Sergeant V. R. Mal
lard and Patrolman H. C. Bobbitt—•
went along to help. A deputy sheriff
—Merton J. Whitley—turned down a
chance to accompany the group.
Whether justly or not, the raiding
officers got the impression that
Deputy Whitley’s refusal to take part
in the raid resulted from higher up
instructions.
“Politics” Charged
Sheriff Rose was not around when
the raid occurred. Later he got word
that he was being blamed for failure
to cooperate in cracking down on the
gambling racket. His friends were
spreading the word around that poli
tical enemies of the sheriff, ired over
the recent defeat at the polls of Audi
tor Jerry George, had inspired the
gambling raid to get even with the
shiriff, who was not a supporter of
George.
Hearing the charges of “politics,”
Constable Royall and his associates of
the-raid- denied them outright, insist
ed they acted against Beasley upon
the persistent complaint of a citizen
whose name was not divulged.
Sheriff’s Denial
The sheriff did a little denying on
his own. He told the press he had
never heard of illicit gambling opera
tions at the Beasley store until he
read of the raid in the paper and as
far as he knew his deputies had never
heard of the secretly-built game room.
He declared he had heard nothing of
the plans to raid the establishment,
was out of town at the time, and had
never instructed any of his deputies
not to cooperate with other law en
forcement officials in conducting
raids.
Deputy Whitley’s story of the raid
incident was not unlike that of his
boss. The deputy said he never had
heard even rumors that Beasley was
operating gambling devices, asserted
he knew nothing of Constable Royall’s
raid plans until he was suddenly ask
ed to go along and help, declared he
declined to join the officers because
he had something else to do.
Questioning of all concerned has
failed to throw complete light on the
whys and wherefores of the jpalousies
and suspicions that exist between
Sheriff Bose and his organization on
the one hand and Constable Royall,
the highway patrolmen and the game
warden on the other.
A Few Things Apparent
But these things are apparent:
(1) Jealousies do exist between the
two groups, existed long before the
Beasley raid, and the raid is only the
latest “incident” in a gathering storm.
(2) The fued got so hot a few
months ago that the patrolmen moved
their desk from a place provided gra
tis in the sheriff’s office to a place of
fered free of charge in the office of
Justice of the Peace Everett Jones,
with whom the patrolmen and the
constable and the game warden work
in apparent perfect harmony.
(3) The distrust of one group for
the other gives the innocent public a
raw deal and consequently the dis
trust becomes a matter of public con
cern that needs a thorough airing.
But if the sheriff hasn’t been im
pressed with the good intentions of
the constable, the patrolmen, and the
game warden, and if that group has
not trusted the sheriff, these officers
are not the only ones involved in con-
trivings threatening to bog down the
whole system of law enforcement in,
Johnston county.
More Disharmony
The Smithfield police department,
headed by Chief J. A. Massey, doesn’t
always quite harmonize with the
sheriff’s office and there is frequent
passing of the buck when aroused
citizens call for action against sus
pected law violators—for instance the
operators of Smithfield’s oft-rumored
downtown “liquor shops.”
The Smithfield chief works under
direct supervision of Mayor 'W. J.
Huntley and the latter official is ul
timately responsible for the kind of
law enforcement the county seat gets
for its tax expenditures. But raids
are spasmodic and judging from their
, (Continued on page eight)
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