Newspapers / Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.) / April 12, 1956, edition 1 / Page 4
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[OCRAT PRINTING COMPANY iy - PUBLISHER ? ? , ? , , ? KMi fenr month*, $JM ; OuUlde Watauga $2 90; 8I? month., ?1 75; low month*, >1.39. \ ! .. ; ' ' p ' wt ? MtoSCttlBERS? In rwjiwiUnf tlwp of ?ddre*?. it U tavorUnt to Mention Dm OLD. toatottice at Boom, N. C., m *eeood data mail matter, under the act el Congreaa ef I ihould SHIPPnl opinion of the people, tlx wa ahtull have a ^ keaitate a aialMat OW that every man Ihould receive theee paper* and ha 4apeMe af randing then* tka haaia af our government being the opinion af the peop tea* that right, and tare it left ta ma ta decide whether we paper*, or newapaper* without tovernment, I ahould not he ha to *lk BOONE. NORTH CAROLINA, THURSDAY. Af*IL if, 1?M iii i The $64,000 Question ' Al the last day for filing income tax forrfu nears, folks get into the usual dither, and wonder where all the money came from anyway, and why they didn't save a bit to iquare things with Uncle Sam. And there's a bit of complaining? an occasional fellow .will wonder why some thing can't bfe done to ease the burden down in the low brackets, where the pinch 60 (Jm tight**! but tfretVa no out* burst against the high levies or in favor of lower ones. The politicians who were loudest in their cries against high taxes and high spending prior to and through the 1952 campaign, ? are now in the mind to let the thing ride, and go along with more foreign aid, more of everything else, and are apparently content to let the national debt mount. In all the hulabaloo going on as a pre* lude to the next election it looks like some fellow would propose to ease the burden of the folks at home ? those who are find-' ing it hard to compete with a spiraling cost of living, on virtually the same in come, and lit .he same time pay a con siderable sum for income taxes so the folks across the ocean may get along better. If the thing would be brought to the atten tion of the people it would bring a mighty response, and votes world without end. The editor of the Port Pierce, Via., Tri bune thinks maybe the $04,000 Question may trigger a demand for Immm tax cuts.. We don't know, but he has this to say: "The program has provided vivid illus tration of the way confiscatory personal income tax rates stack the cards against risk-taking ventures. Tens of millions of listeners have seen people, because of tax considerations, decide against taking the chance of turning $32,000 Into $64,000." In its editorial, going Into detail about the tax question, the Fort Pierce news paper said: "Once aroused, the people of this coun try are all-powerful? what they want is what members of the Congress will do. Fortunately It is not possible for any indi vidual, or group, to know in advance what will take the people's fancy and arouse them. The $64,000 Question has done just that and has focused their at tention on just how tough and confiscatory the present federal income tax actually is. "The average person looks upon the income tax as a necessary evil. But the tendency is to look upon it r.ore as a de vice to soak the rich ? an idea which some politicians go to great lengths to Implant . without stopping to realize how unfair taxation Impedes economic progress. But they get the idea when they realize that an average person, in going after the 164,000 after having answered the question for $32,00Q gets to keep much less than half of the additional $32,000. "In short, the contestant takes all the risk. If he loses, the loss is all his. If he wins, Uncle Sam steps in and takes the biggest part. Yet, in winning, it is the contestant who furnishes the brains, and knowledge, and risk. Well, that is what has been going on for years! Individuals and corporations take all the risk to make big money so that Uncle Sara can take the biggest share of the profits! Some people now realize that., to actually win $64,000 net, the prize would have to be $448,711.11 to a single person with a regular Income of $4,000. "Readers might be interested in com ments, quoting figures, made on this same subject by the First National City Bank of New York, in a recent monthly Letter: " 'Since the program was launched only a few persons have successfully doubled their money up to the $32,000 mark and only 2 have successfully doubled their money to $64,000. "'Hundreds of listeners from all over the country have written or telegraphed warnings that $64,000 is not double $32,000 but only about half again aa much. The rules of the Income tax supersede the laws of arithmetic. To a single person with a $4,000 income from other sources, a win ning of $32,000 gets assessed an additional federal tax of $15,400 leaving $16,600 as the actual prize. An extra $32,000 winning would get assessed a tax of $23,292, in creasing the prize by no more than $6,708. Thus he is risking an assured $16,600 for a chance to win an additional $8,708. " 'Although leu well advertised, tax rule* dictate answers of "no" every day of the week lo businessmen, investors, and professional men of every description. The injury is not only to the opportunities of people but also to the tax collections. Risk-taking enterprise affords the richest source of government revenues. '' 'In the consideration of changes in the personal income tax next year, Congress will do well to ponder the desirability of finding a schedule of rates that encour ages people to go ahead. For people who feel the urge and have the talent to go ahead the real $64,000 question is what the Congress will determine to do'." Seek Rail increase Major Southern railroads are joining with lines east and west in asking for a five per cent increase in paaaenger fares, which they hope may be made effective by May IS, presumably to augment the dwindling revenue from rail travelers. The basic passenger fares in the South are 3J5 cents per mile first class and 2.73 in coaches. The basic eastern fares are 4tt and 1.375 and in the west 3H and 2V< cents. A spokesman far the southern carriers pointed out that the last time Southern railroads increased passenger fares was November 1991, and we would hasten to agree with them that costs of all sorts have risen tremendously since that time. We don't know much about railroads, other than that it seems we used to spend most ?f out money through a railroad tic .ket window, before we had eVer expected to own an automobile or board an air plane. But whan the Iocs of passengers on the . rails ha* dwindled to the point that moat of the trdins have already been dis continued, it's hard to tell how better income will accrue from higher farts. Southern railroads hm, it teems to ui, given up their passenger traffic without much of a struggle. Tl* tru# the dieaels have taken the place of tht big steam loco motive* with the plaintive whistle*, but otherwise th* equipment look* about like it uaed to, and if the schedule* have been upped to the point of competing with other forma of land travel we haven't heard of it. With air travel, if you take into account the food, tips, and Pullman accommoda tions, being fully as cheap as travel on the rails, who'd swap the high speed, spotless, courteous trek through space for a jostling along the rails at about the same speeds that were common forty years ago, no matter how much per mileT Better service, faster schedules, and bet ter equipment would tend to bring more folks beck to the trains, no doubt, but in this age of two car families, and expanding' air travel, 11 could of course be hard to Justify such expenditures. Might be throw ing good money after bad. ? &V What's A Yankee? (Chicago Tribune) Foreigners call all Americans Yankees. Southerners say that Yankees are north erner!. Northerners say that Yankees are from the New England states. People In New England say it is the Vermountert who are Yankees. Vermonters reply that a Yankee is Just someone whe eats pic for breakfast. . . / .. ; r&yt* EACH SEES VICTORY By Paul Berc ft* f ' Stretch's Sketches ' By " STRETCH " ROLLINS Borrowed, Blue* Old and New REVISED VERSION ? Sometimes you need a ? little help when you try to parlay ? typewriter, a aheet of paper, and a blank ' S (tare into a weekly newspa ?BmBB per column. ?^^9 Relayed by Clolce Burrell H in the Charlotte Observer ? from the Sanford Herald is a, I story which deserves a small I er (but more select) audience. Asked what he had learned I in Sunday School, the story I goes, a youngster told his mo I ther: "Well, our teacher told | us about when God sent Moses behind the enemy lines to rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians. "When they came to the Red Sea, Moses called for engineers to build a pontoon bridge. After they had all crossed (hey looked back and saw the Egyptian tanks coming. Quick as s flash, Moses radioed headquarters on his walkie-talkie to send bombers and blow up the bridge, and saved the Israelites " "Walt ? minute," exclaimed the startled mo ther, "is that really the way your teacher told that story*" "Well, not exactly," the youngster said, "but if I told it her way, you'd never believe it." APPLIANCE ALLIANCE? A financial writer says electric appliance makers have committed themselves to a program of "planned product obsolescence." Which meant they wUl intro duce new styles and features every year to make owners of even late models dissatiafled with what they have aqd eager to buy the newst ones available. Well, It may be something new, but it has always seemed that ? There must be some sort of conspiracy or alliance By every on* who manufactures a household ?appliance: Any time I buy a new tv, vacuum cleaner or refrigerator, It nearly always turns out that I should have waited ? little later; Because as sure aa I do, That seems to be their cue To revolutionize the product with improvement* that are quite extensive ? And not only that, but the new model is even leu expensive! SCANTY SKETCHES? Headlines and Foot note*: "Polly Bergen Launches Azalea Festival at Wilmington." (What'd she do, break a bottle ot Pepsi-Cola over the. mayor's head?) . . . "Chinese Reds Called Free From Income Tax." (Probly free from income, too.) . ... Something blue? That could be the color my noee turned when I ventured out Into last Sunday's spring weather. From Early Democrat Files Sixty Yean Ago' \ April ?, UN Hlu Jennie Counelll l|i returned after spend ing the winter in Salisbury. Attorney E. S. Coffey is rapidly completing his law office, and he hopes to occupy it by court. Mr. J. r.' Hardin ia haying hia building* in town repaired. When completed they will be occupied by Attorney Councill and family. Married on Thursday of last week at the resi dence of the bride's father, Mr. R. h. Hodges of Brushy Fork, Mr. George Teague and Mrs. Naomi Hedges. Congreaa ia daily dabbling on the Cuban ques tion. It is hard to knew what Is the matter. Something will perhapa be done this week on the resolution. Much fighting and many out rages are going on in Cuba. Tke insurgents are holding their own aa usual. Now and then the Cabana are recruited by men from own own country, and nobody can see the end yet. Thirty-Nine Years Ago April U, 1917. Quite ? snowfall on Sunday, but M aoon netted off and was followed fay ? heavy downpour of rain. Mr. Unville Water*, prominent cattle dealer of Hopkins, died in a hospital la Winston-Salem Saturday, after an illnesa with pnaumonia. The remains ware brought home far Interment which was yesterday. When the question of tba load bonds for Wa tauga county was first agitated the sum to be aaked for. It was decided, would be >190,000. But later the 0?od Roads Commission and other prominent man throughout the couaty decided that the amount was Inadequate and that to give each towsafcip la the county the ton bene fit of the system, It would be ncoasaary to vaU bonds to the amount of $200,000. This amount, aafiaented by the *#0.000 from the rederal fund, will sccomplish the and sought, and surely every thinking man In the county will deem it a privilege to vote far the bomb. Rev. John Ingle, who is eighty years old, will preach for the people of Blowing ftock the fifth Sunday in April. Mr. Ingle is very active for a man of his age, and still retains full possession of his mental faculties. President Wilson asked Congress, assembled in joint session, to declare a state of war existing between the United States and Germany. . . . Fifteen Years Ago April It, 1M1. Alex Auton, 87, resident of the Middle Pork section, met instant death Tuesday near the W. M. Winkler farm when, he touched an eteetric line carrying more than 6,000 volts of electricity. ... A craw of highway workers, under John Greer were cutting a tree which had threatened to slide into the road. . . . Auton was warned to stay away, and after the tree bad broken the high tension wire, the workers screamed at him to ?tey away from the locality. . . However, he deliberately took hold of the end of the wire dangling from a limb o( the fallen tree. . . . Letters Of Appreciation Our Mr. Riven: I would like to express the appreciation of the Boone Junior Woman's Club for the publicity services that the Watauga Democrat bqs afforded as during the past year. This service greatly iacreaaed the effectiveness of our program. Your generosity aad genuine interest in Boone and Watauga County ia. an important aaset to our community. MRS. JAMES C. WHITE. JR. Boom, N. C Dear Bob: I would be leas tfcaa human if I did not ap preciate that unusually atrong editorial, "A Wise Deciaiea," in the Watauga Democrat this w?>k. 1 dent deserve that bat I appreciate it Just the ?MM. rn try to be a? useful as poaaible to the com munity as District Governor of the Rotary. STANUtY A. HARRIS KING STREET ANOTHER LANDMARK GOES . . . END OE AN ERA The work o I razing the Mi* Jennie Cof/ey store building goesM , on steadily, and considerable interest has attached to the re moval from the street of the dilapidated old structure, which was bright and new back in the gay nineties, and which, so far as we recall, is the last of the old general storo buildings which served the Boone trade as the nineteenth century ? the happy time of bright gowns and gay blades, snappy songs, and two seated bicycles ? gave way to the age of the machine, of the automobile, the airplane and of internationalism, and of the big wars. J. M. MORETZ told us a few yemta ago that be eon strutted the old building in 18*, and that he and the late A. C. (Collie) Farthing used it for the sale of general merchandise for a number of year*. . . . When we tu first remember the place was unoccupied and the youngster* of the neighborhood found it a fine place to play on rainy days. ... All the merchandise - had long since been moved, but we remembered the bottles of pepper sauce which were left on one of the shelves and which many a lad was Induced to sip. . , . Along about the time the first world, war was shaping up in Europe Dm H. Phillips published The Watauga Naws in the old store for about a year, and sometime later Miss Jennie Coffey moved her store up the street from the Critcher Hotel when she bought the property. IT WAS A FALSEFRONT . . . SHE REMODELED IT Originally one of the false-fronted structures (that" is the front was buMt up to two-story dimensions to hide the square-pitched roof which sheltered the one-story building) Miss Coffey added a second story and provided apartment space on the second floor which was readily rented as long as she was able to care for the building. . . . Miss Coffey, who had for many years been the town's only milliner before she moved to the Moretz building, was for a long time the dispenser of, school books, also sold pencils and tablets and pins and pincushions, post cards and notions, and really did a god deal of business. ... A good long while before she reached her century mark, her goods had all been sold, she didn't replenish her stock, and spent the remainder of her days living in, the old store, and in summer tending her few flowers and rocking behind the screen of Vir ginia creeper which sheltered her porch from the afternoon sun. . . . Bought by W. M. Hodges, he will erect a modern business structure there, which will add to the appearance of the block. A GOOD MANY OF THE OLD-TIMERS have come by to reminisce and to look back on the days before the modern grocery and department store, when beans and sugar and lard, and fish hooks, salt pork, gingham cloth, i hair ribbons, plow points and axle grease were dispens ed from a common stock, arranged in shelves and on counters alongside a pot-bellied stove, and when the news of tbe neighborhood was gathered from the hang ers on at the general store. . . . Likewise the tales from afar lifted into (the village from the drummers who came in their hado*4oi?aU on these early-day merchants. THE GENERAL STORE,* like the horse and bucsrv, was crowded out in the march of progress and supplanted by the super markets and the department stores, and other marvel: of mass merchandising. . . . We're happy we live in a day when retail (tores are neatly arranged, expertly managed, and where everything is at the finger tips of competent clerks But wher the last of these old store buildings is being taken away, we have nostalgic memories of the pioneer merchant, sdooping the sugar, siphoning the "lamp oil" and slicing the fqtback. . . We think of the big wooden buckets of candy, of the gallon jar; of chewing gum, and the peanuts with the finger rings inside the package. . . . Then we recall the old residents who sat on the creaking chairs, on the counters, the cracker box and the sugai barrel and their commentari*s on politics and progress, anc their wise decision! on public matters. . . . They provided worthy ancestry for modern civic clubs and Chambers of Com merce. So This Is New York By NORTH CALLAHAN Bernard Barueh mutt have been in the mind of the poet who wrote about old age being the last of life for which the first was made. Mr. Barueh is the youngest octogenar ian I know, both in looks and acti vity. He is'not childish about it either. The other night he came to a social gathering, stayed awhile anil chatted cheerfully with some of us, then left early. He ? realised, he aaM, that at his age he could not do what he had once done, nor even what he would like to do now. Asked why he recently declined the crowning of a local beauty queen, he quipped, "I am ?7 and too old for that kind of Job. You need someone in the early W?." ? Joe Smith says he didn't mind tipping hi* barber until he met him riding in ? Cadillac. Joe drive* a Ford and recalled that the bar ker had recently gone up on hi* price* in the suburban ihop which ha own* and apparently expected customers to go up on their tip* a* well. With Just ? little figuring, Joe estimated that the barber was making more than he was. So Joe stopped tipping. Feefi there should be a law against it anyway, thinks that when he pays for a service, that should he sufficient sad that ha should hot be subjected to slighted Job* and dirty looks ju*t because he doe* not grease the palm ot the one who, la obligated to give good service anyway. Now that spring i* peeping through the recent fmom scene here, ant's thoughts go back to thoae halcyon days of hayrides or the father'a (arm. I was just aboul to say there are no such things any more when I learned that ovei on Staten Island,. John and Adeli Franzreb operate a riding academy which takes out parties of thirty young P??l>le by moonlight on hay wagon rides in the spring and fall la old-fashioned style, they jour ney to the thick woods which stil ?bound, and there subjeet them selves to the delights of hot dog! and marshmallows. Tea, this ii just a big country town, afer all. They're still telling the storj about the Texan who drove hii beat convertible up to the toll gah at the George Washington bridg< here, and seemed in somewhat o a daxe aa he studied the atructun of the great span, which represent one of the foremost engineering feats of the world. The' attendan was sympathetic, but can wen lining up behind thet convertlbl< so he asked the Texan for the 80 cent toll. The latter finally turnec his head and looked at the attend ant "Sorry, eon," he aaid genially switching his heavy Havana fron one aide of his mouth to the other "I never carry anything leas thai a 1000 bill. How much do you wan for the bridge?" Two men live In the Waldor Towers who once had a close rela tionship. bat now apparently vies life differently One is Herber Hoover, among the moat reapeete< of om elder statesmen and who ii (Continued on page sin)
Watauga Democrat (Boone, N.C.)
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April 12, 1956, edition 1
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