By Mail — $2. Yearly — In Advance
ROANOKE RAPIDS, NORTH CAROLINA
THE LARGEST NEWSPAPER IN HALIFAX COUNTY
Member North Carolina Frees Association
CARROLL WILSON. Owner and Editor
ι ■ -
Œntered as Second Class matter April 3rd, 1914, at the post offic.
•c Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, under Act of March 8rd, 1879.
OFFICE EQUIPMENT & SUPPLIES
ADVERTISING - PRINTING - EMBOSSING
CHOOSE YOUR LEADERS
• · This Saturday, Oct. 19th and next Saturday,
Oct. 26th, are the last days you can register to
vote, in case you are not now on the County-State
registration books. If you desire to exercise your
democratic right to vote for the next President
and Vice President of the United States and for the
next Governor and other State officials of North
Carolina, you must be registered in order to vote
on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 5th.
uur nrst interest is max an quanncu vuic ω
this most important election. You will not have
another chance to vote for a President or a Gover
nor for four years and these next four years are
fraught with fearsome possibilities. World con
ditions today are more chaotic than ever in the
recorded history of man.
America ana jengiana, îanas wnere ιυικ.» aie
still free, stand almost alone as countries where
folks can still go and vote without fear or favor for
those qf their choice. This coming election may
decide whether folks in this country can still go to
the polls and vote as they wish; or whether as in
Germany, you vote for one man or face a firing
squad.
Every man and woman in Roanoke Rapids and
Halifax County over 21 years of age, who has lived
in this county for six months and in this State for
12 months past, should be registered in order to
vote on Nov. 5th.
We are not telling you how to vote; we are
telling you what you should do in order to vote. If
you have not been on the books since the last new
county-wide registration, find out who your regis
trar is, find out where your precinct polling place
is, go there this Saturday or next and give your
name, age and address to that registrar so you can
vote on Nov. 5th.
You say you are a citizen of the United States;
you love your country; . . . then be a voter and
choose your leaders.
THE EMERGENCY IS HERE
• · He can "be a very great man in an
emergency".
This decided Dorothy Thompson, best known
woman columnist in the U. S., last week to come
out whole-heartedly for Roosevelt.
Miss Thompson had just lunched with Mr.
IWendell Willkie, whom she knows personally, told
him she was coming out against him unless he
could change her mind. He failed to do so.
Time Magazine reports her Roosevelt reasons:
his experience, his prestige in the Democratic
world (England, China, South America, Canada,
what are left of free peoples in Europe, Asia and
Africa). Her belief, also, that he has the confi
dence of the rank and file. (That's us). .Time is
of the essence, said Miss Thompson, and Willkie
1940 SACK RACE
»
I
does not have the time to win confidence and to
gain experience.
Our own personal experience, after visiting
various parts of Halifax County, is that some
usual staunch Democrats of the upper class, as
compared to the rank and file, are a little luke
warm toward the Roosevelt-Wallace ticket. We
admit it only to say it makes us want to fight
harder, knowing that most of them have prospered
well during the past eight years and many of them
prospered not so well during the eight years be
fore.
But "the rank and file" are with Roosevelt.
He has their confidence. He has proved himself
their friend indeed when they were in need. We
warn the rank and file only of this: don't take un
due advantage of a real friend; like the Negroes
in New York did when they issued the kind of
stupid political propaganda about Willkie that
hits below the belt; Mr. Roosevelt has received
more harm from well-meaning but ignorant
friends and advisers than he ever has from his
political enemies.
A very great man in an emergency is what
America needs now more than anything else.
Roosevelt is not indispensable but he is best-fitted
to handle the international emergency which is at
our very doorstep.
SELECTIVE TRAINING
• · We use no soft-soaping words in defining
what many term "the draft" as selective training.
Yesterday, more than 2,000 here in Roanoke
Rapids registered for a program of national de
fense which was the only sane, proper and patriotic
way to handle a grave problem. A half million in
North Carolina registered. More than 15 million
in the U. S. registered.
To those young men, between 21 and 36, we
look for our own first line of defense.
If this country is worth living in; if our ideals
are worth anything; they are worth defending.
Any person who is against that sort of thinking
should be placed In Class 5 which is just as far
away from active service as can be found. We do
not want that kind of person defending anything
we have worth anything.
it is a saa tnougnt to many parents ana young
wives to see their loved ones taking the first step
that might mean war. But, having been thru one
war when we were totally unprepared, we defy
even those persons to advance a reasonable and
unselfish argument to the point
that, if America must eventually
defend itself and keep its position
in world affairs, we must be ready;
we must be prepared.
Those who would say that we
should not prepare until we are at
war may be honest in their con
victions; but they are lending al
most as much aid to the potential
enemies which surround us .is if
they were actually fighting us.
Even Boy Scouts are taught to Be
Prepared. That means to be pre
pared for any emergency.
We predict that if the U. S. goes
ahead with the plans now under
way and selects its men to be
trained as real soldiers with the
proper care and equipment, we will
do more to stop the further spread
of war than any other action we
might take.
X lie- UiV/l-atUl Ο ιι^νυι tuvu·,»» " -
would do it. More than 15 million
Americans registered for service
yesterday. They were between 21
and 36. There is still a great re
serve left between 18 and 21 and
between 36 and 50. Another 15
million yet uncalled. Let the dic
tators pause over that.
They have fought this selective
training bill; they have flooded our
country with pacifist propaganda;
they still think us a soft people.
That registration yesterday has
done more than anything under
the sun to show them the U. S. is
not soft, not weak, not vaccilating.
It has done more than anything
else to throw the fear of the future
into them. It has done more to
hearten the conquered peoples of
the globe and those who face con
quest.
America is getting prepared. A
merica means business. How such
news must bring tears of happiness
to the eyes and hearts of millions
of oppressed. How it must throw
the dictators into a frenzy of fear.
We are proud to report that in
Roanoke Rapids and Halifax Coun
ty our men went to the registra
tion like men, like Americans. To
all of them it was a new, grave ex
perience which they faced with
courage. We joke a lot, we Ameri
cans, but underneath it all is forti
tude and stamina which is all that
makes any people worth while.'We
have stood a lot of bluffing from
the would-be dictators of the
world, that corporation of master
minds which plans world dom
inance.
We called their hands yesterday.
HOOPS OF STEEL
φ Some guy with a real gift of
saying what many of, us would like
to say once wrote: "Let me live
by the side of the road and be a
friend to man."
We may have disappointed a lot
of folks but we have tried to live
something like that. We have
found it right hard to do.
We have gloried with those we
know when they were happy and
sitting on the top of the world.
We have gone down in the depths
of despair with those who have
been in sorrow, failure or remorse.
We have had fair-weather
friends. We have lost friends by
lending them money. We have had
sweet-talking and shoulder-wrap
ping friends. We have had aodblfl
crossing friends.
There is but one true test of real
friendship: when clouds are black
est; when the rest of the world
turns against you; - When it is un
popular and impolitic and bad bus
iness to stick by a friend when he
needs you most. When you stick,
if you can, is the real test. There
is no other.
The man who lives by the side
of the road must learn to take the
bitter with the sweet. True friend
ship sometimes demands both.
Polonius had a way of saying it;
we have only this to say: we stick
by our friends. Let our enemies
spew their worst.
Primitive Methods
Need Not
Be
Followed
in
Advertising |
& *
Be Modern
ADVERTISE HEREU