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ROANOKE RAPIDS, NORTH CAROLINA
THE LARGEST NEWSPAPER IN HALIFAX COUNTY
Member North Carolina Press Association
CARROLL WILSON, Owner and Editor
Entered as Second Class matter April 3rd, 1914, at the post offic.
at Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, under Act of March 3rd, 1879,
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• • It appears the present legislature, as Gaul
was, is divided into three parts: 1, Those who
want to repeal the absentee ballot law entirely and
abolish all markers; 2, Those who want to com
promise and make some changes but not as dras
tic as those of the absolute repealers; and 3, Those
who want to leave things just like they are and
have been.
It was interesting to us to note the tart re
marks in the editorial column of the Raleigh News
& Observer Tuesday of this week in which was
quoted the prediction of Major MacLendon, former
chairman of the State Board of Elections. The
Major, an administration man and a staunch Dem
ocrat of a lifetime, predicted that unless this Dem
ocratic legislature made drastic changes in the
present election laws it would spell misery to and
possible doom of the Democratic Party in this
State. This prediction was supported by the News
& Observer and it has a mighty familiar ring to ft.
This writer, when making a similar prediction sev
eral months ago, was assailed as turning Repub
lican. Today, we find our position substantiated
by many who realize how serious the problem has
become, including some of the leading Democrats
and Democratic newspapers of the State.
These warnings should put the legislature on
final notice. They are not partisan in their nature,
coming from Democrats who have no axes to grind,
whose personal interests have been submerged be
cause of their interest in their party and State.
We still contend, and daily more Democrats
agree with us, that the use of markers in primary
elections is just as great an evil and presents just
as much opportunity for corruption as does the
abused absentee ballot. There are a few argu
ments in favor of a very limited absentee ballot.
There is absolutely no excuse for the use of
markers. It has developed that North Carolina is
the only state in the Union which still permits the
use of markers. The other 47 states have done
away with markers and assistants in marking
ballots, leaving North Carolina in a position where
she must blush with shame as the lone state where
ignorance or corruption demand that a voter must
have somebody help him mark his ballot.
To those members of the legislature in groups
1 and 2; those who want to do something construc
tive in changing and simplifying the elections
laws, thus placing elections in North Carolina on
a higher and more decent plane where the will of
the majority may be more honestly ascertained,
we say: Do what you will with the absentee ballot
to make it less abused; do away with it altogether,
if that be the only way; But whatever you do,
abolish completely this marker system in primary
elections and general elections and put North
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Carolina level with every other State which has
recognized that herein lies the real evil of election
fraud and corruption.
To those members of the legislature in the
3rd class, who want to do nothing about the elec
tion laws, who want to let these evils continue un
abated, we have only this to say: those who watch
your activities and vote on this legislation cannot
help but come to the conclusion that such an atti
tude must be due to the fact that you personally
profited by the rottenness and corruption of the
present system and would like to continue to profit
thereby.
START PROPER PARKING NOW
• • Now that the three blocks on Tenth Str6et
are completed, paved and curbed, and open to
traffic, there must be some regulations made as
to the method of parking.
Tenth Street is 36 feet wide. There was a
movement on foot to have this width increased in
order to have more room for parking and traffic,
but an investigation showed that it would be im
possible to widen the street enough to answer the
purpose of angle parking on both sides, or even
of angle parking on one side and parallel parking
on the other.
Those who are parking in the blocks between
Hamilton and the Avenue and Jackson and the
Avenue have automatically begun the system of
parallel parking on both sides, which is the only
way parking can be done on both sides and still
permit two-way traffic.
But on the block between Jackson and Madi
son, with a row of business houses on the North
side of the street, an effort is being made to angle
park on the North side and parallel park on the
South side. This does not permit the passage of
but one line of traffic so that cars must wait, eith
er at Jackson or Madison, until the single lane is
clear before passing. When big trucks are angle
parked on one side and a car on the other side,
there is hardly room for a single car to pass.
There are only two solutions: either parallel
parking , on both sides of the street or angle park
ing on the North side and No Parking on the South
side. It makes little difference which is adopted
but one or the other should be and at once while
the idea is new, the street just opened and before
the habit of doing the wrong thing becomes too
fixed.
There is no use of waiting until folks have be
l
come accustomed to one way and
then cause a lot of trouble by
changing it. Tenth is the most
travelled side street in the city and
it is important that a definite plan
be adopted at once, signs put up
and the driving public educated to
proper parking there. The same
applies to all other paved streets in
the city except Roanoke Avenue,
which is wide enough for angle
parking on both sides.
There may be those who think
the 36 feet in width of Tenth Street
is very narrow for a city street.
However, this happens to be the
width of the main street in Wel
don, which is also a Federal high
way. There they park parallel on
both sides of the street.
In order to make uniform park
ing on all streets in Roanoke Rap
ids except the Avenue, parallel
parking on both sides would be the
simplest solution. However, if the
majority of those in that one block
on Tenth between Jackson and
Madison prefer angle parking on
the North side, it means No Park
ing on the South side. Which
would be all right for that block if
preferred by those who use it most
for parking.
LABOR AND THE
SALES TAX
£ Business of agreeing with the
Raleigh News and Observer, when
it says anent the action of the
American Federation of Labor
here on sales tax:
“The North Carolina State Fed
eration of Labor acted in wisdom
when it unanimously condemned
the general sales tax and called
for its repeal. Undoubtedly the del
egates knew that ridding this
State of this tax, which was put
into the revenue laws as an "e
mergency” measure, will not be
easy. But they also know that it
is an inequitable, unjust and un«
fair tax. Once Revenue Commis
sioner A. J. Maxwell described it
as a tax on poverty. It remains
that. Time does not cure it. And
labor acts intelligently in re-em
phasizing its opposition to this levy
on the subsistence of the poorest
people in the State.”
The sales tax is indeed a tax on
poverty, and when written into the
statutes as an “emergency” few
thinking citizens had the slightest
idea that it would be repealed when
the emergency passed. Emergen
cies of this type have a way of en
during for generations.
It may be argued that the
schools benefit, and that without
it, our schools would suffer.
Our schools, for the most part,
are already suffering.
If, however, it is a matter of
finances, one suspects there are at
least a score of office holders a*
round Raleigh, whose salaries
could be saved, and we doubt that
(Continued on Page 11, Section A)