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NB-*Craven Libraxy ■
400 Johnson St# y
New Bern, NC 28660 i
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CAROLINA
5^ Per Copy
VOLUME 11
NEW BERN, N. C., FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1968
NUMBER 30
If you failed to Arthur Krock’s
brilliantly written article In the
Sept. 7th Issue of the Saturday
Evening Post, you owe it to
yourself to correct this over
sight.
The piece Is taken from his
book, “Memoirs: Sixty Years
On the Firing Line." Soon to
be published. It Is a volume
deserving a place in every
American's personal library.
Krock, for six decades, was
Washington correspondent for
the New York Times. He knew
all of the Presidents of the last
half century Intimately, but
great newspaperman &at he
was, he didn't hesitate to invite
their wrath by writing ob
jectively about them.
“The United States," writes
Krock, “merits the dubius
distinction of having discarded
its past and meaning in one of
the briefest spans of modern
history." And then he elabo
rates on that assertion.
“Among these changes are a
federal union almost replaced
by a mass federal democracy
controlled by analliance of poli
ticians and special-interest
groups; fl. .cal solvency and con
fidence in a stable dollar driv
en from the national andforeign
marketplace by continuous def
icit spending, easy credit and
growing unfavorable balance of
payments in the international
ledger of the United States; the
free-enterprise system shack
led by organized labor and a
government-managed economy;
the Republic transmuted into a
welfare state susidized from
Washington; a self-reliant peo
ple widely seduced by federal
handouts; spoiled generations
—young and old—led to expect
the government to provide for
all their wants free of any of
the requirements of responsible
citizenship; a Supreme Court
assuming overlordship of the
government and all the people to
fit the political philosophy of the
current majority; and a Con
gress reflecting the people's
apathy toward this assumption
and foregoing the use of its
Constitutional powers to curb
the Court’s seizures of Juris
diction in areas for which it
has no warrant in the consti
tution or the statutes."
If these lines had been writ
ten by George C. Wallace, they
could be attacked as the mouth-
ings of a rabble rouser from the
Deep South, but calling Artliur
Krock a redneck would be pre
posterous. He not only has
earned the respect of every out
standing leader of his time, but
is a Journalist of unquestion
ed courage and Integrity.
“Tell it like it is" is one of
the more popular shmgexpres-
slons of our day, but for sixty
years, quite seriously, this is
what krock has been doing. If
he cared to display them, he
could mount affectionately auto
graphed photos from Presidents
who later despised him because
he didn't write in a manner
that pleased them.
In his evaluation of Lyndon
Johnson, Krock describes him
as both compassionate and ven
geful; considerate and unfeel
ing; lofty of aims, but incom
parably egotistical in the con
viction prevalent among Presi
dents that the ends that serve
them and their potential inter
ests equally serve the country.
His pretenses of benignity, es-
(Contlnued on Page 8)
WAY BACK WHEN—^The amazing world we live in
today may lead you to believe that the yesteryears
in New Bern were dull and uneventful. Don’t kid your
self. There was plenty of excitement, especially when
the Button and Atlantic fire departments played host
to the State Tournament. In the photographs above,
dating back to July 1910, New Bern’s champion smoke
eaters reel hose from a speeding wagon, and vie with
visiting Tar Heel runners in a spirited track meet.
Little did the participants in these hectic contests
dream that a time would come when men would soar
through outer space in quest of the moon, and you
could gaze at a screen in your own living room and
read their messages back to earth and listen to their
voices. Fifty eight years, it has been demonstrated,
can bring a lot of changes, and extend our horizon.
What about tomorrow?