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LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT .
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Inspection Program
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Should Be Reinstated
The County Commissioners killed
the county electrical inspection program
on a split vote here last week. Chair
man E. M. Sykes broke the tie when he
u joined Commissioners Norwood Faulkner
and George Harris in issuing the death
blow.
Commissioners Richard Cash and
Brooks Young not only opposed the
elimination of the program but sought
to strengthen it. Indeed, there was
some talk of expanding the program to
include plumbing.
However, the majority voted to do
away with the program. They ordered it
done immediately without a study and '
without giving the people an opportunity
to oppose the move.
Preliminary investigation reveals that
several citizens within the past f e w
days experienced difficulty in getting
homes and buildings inspected in order
to have current delivered to the struc
tures. The county inspector has been
ill recently and service in this area has
been practically non-existant.
In one case, it was reported that a
Vance County inspector was called in
and at least one citizen visited the
courthouse where he expected to obtain
a permit. But, most of those having
trouble called the commissioner in their
district seeking help.
These people were justifiably upset.
They were not receiving the service
they deserved and expected.
It is a regrettable fact of political
life that a few disgruntled constituents,
regardless of how just their cause might
be, can speak with a loud voice and a
sincere plea and cause elected officials
to forget the masses in favor of the few.
And surely, the hasty action on the
part of the majority of the board last
week was designed to serve the few at
the expense .of the many. It is much
like doing away with the police depart
ments because a few crimes go unsolved.
It would be unfair to say that all
fires in this county, where a definite
cause was not established, could be
placed on faulty wiring. Indeed, this
would be incorrect. However, there have
been enough fires with evidence point
ing to wiring as a cause to mejjt a care
ful study before the electrical inspec
tion program was killed.
Killing the program because of the
lack of service was not in the best in
terest of the people. It should be rein
stated at once and enough inspectors
- be employed to insure the proper ser
vice citizens deserve and have a right
to expect.
Fires, from any cause, can endanger
an entire community and proper inspec
tion can surely prevent many. It might
even be wise to study the possibility of
including plumbing and maybe heating
in the program.
But, the need for electrical inspec
tion did not die last week, only the
program was killed. The sooner it is re
vived, , the more relieved most citizens
are going to be. The commissioners
should move at once to correct this
mistake. Otherwise, some irresponsible
person could build a firetrap? possibly
a deathtrap-next door to any of us. It
is too large a chance to take.
The electrical inspection program
should be reinstated at once.
Frustration: The
Meaning Has Changed
Looking through an old dictionary the
other day, we discovered that the word
"frustration" meant "disappointment."
Looking in a new, modern dictionary
soon after, we found "frustration" now
means "a deep chronic itate of inse
curity and dissatisfaction arising from
unresolved problems." It seems the
writers of our dictionaries, like our
society, changes word meanings to
their own liking.
Richard Speck, convicted murderer of
eight young student nurses in Chicago,
according to the doctors, was frustrated.
The young man who climbed the tower
in Texas to kill thirty-some people for
no apparent reason was, at the time,
frustrated.
And nog the mobs of hoodlums who
murder and burn, who make a foxhole in
Vietnam safer than a street comer in
i Newark, are said to be frustrated.
We are convinced that under the old
meaning of the word, every human being
on earth has at one time or another been
frustrated. How many disappointments
have we all had at some time in our
lives. As long as frustrated was Re
fined to mean disappointment, the word
was seldom used.
Now, however, with its new meaning,
it is used to excuse every conceivable
crime.
There have always been unresolved
problems. There will always be. The
practice of rioting as an expression of
disappointment is hard to believe. It is
also impossible for us to become con
vinced that riots are spontaneous events.
One man might make another angry
enough to strike back, by his words or
actions. This might be spontaneous.
But for hundreds to rise up at once to
destroy their own neighborhoods and
cause their own people and others to be
slaughtered on the streets has to be
planned.
No one carries a Molotov cocktail
around in their pockets. These things
have to be made. Some one has to
obtain the material. Guns, rifles, and
the like don't just happen to be handy at
any given time and any given place.
They, too, have to be obtained. And to
do so, someone has to make plans.
The leaders of our cities and of this
country can continue to excuse these
riots as being caused by frustrated
people. They can continue to take the
position that riots are caused, not by
those rioting, but by the ordinary citizen
in the community for not having done
more for the frustrated among them.
Indeed, they can continue to reward
those bent on destroying this nation by
building for them new houses, swimming
pools and bowing to blackmail and hiring
them for jobs when they are not qualified
for them. They can expand on the gov
ernmental handouts and rest on the pro
mise that all this is due these people
because of their frustration.
Yes, these things can be continued.
The price, however, they will soofc find,
is far greater than this country can af
ford and still remain the bulwark of
freedom it has been in the past.
When our values become so warped
that a policeman, a servant of his com
munity, can be stomped to death on a
public street and sympathy goes, not to
his widow, but to the poor frustrated
murderers, we have moved beyond the
point of return.
Unless we restore the old meaning
to the word frustration, and unless we
return to the true values in our lives
and stand firm in our attitudes toward
those people with criminal intent, this
nation cannot survive.
If millions can live in peace with
their own disappointments, so too can
the few.
"An Interesting Account Has Come Our Way, Jones---"
Guest Editorial
Reprize from the Chicago Tribune.
If the truth is repeated often enough and forcefully enough, people may stop be
lieving that national defense is the principal cause of rising federal expenditures. And
if people stop believing it, administration officials will stop trying to use it as an excuse
every tine they want to pry more money out of Congress.
Just the other day. Secretary of the Treasury Fowler explained his request for a
29-billion-dollar increase in the national debt limit by saying that we have to finance a
war.
It is quite true that the costs of defense have gone up. But the most forceful indict
ment of the real culprit in federal spending that we've seen in a long time was given
recently by Maurice H. Stans. who was director of the budget in the Eisenhower
administration.
Consider this, for example:
"The 1968 budget contains 22 billion dollars for Viet Nam;
"Since 1960, including that 22 billion, expenditures for national defense are up 68
per cent; - ,
"Since I960, nondefense expenditures of the government are up 97 per cent;
"Since 1960, expenditures for national welfare and health programs are up 210
per cent."
Here is another of Mr. Stans' comparisons:
"Since 1960 the population of the United States has grown by 10 per cent;
"Since 1960 the personnel comprising the civilian burocracy of the federal govern
ment has grown by 25 per cent;
"Since 1960 the cost of government payrolls, including military, has grown by 75
per cent;
"Since 1960 the total of all government spending has grown by more than 83 per
cent."
From these and other figures, Mr. Stans draws the following conclusions:
"1. The major thrust of the higher outgo since 1960 is not due to Viet Nam, but is
in the civilian nondefense activities of the government.
"2. Government spending will more than double during the decade of the 1960s,
regardless of the outcome of the Viet Nam conflict.
"3. There is little likelihood of a balanced budget at any time in the forseeable future.
"4. There is a strong probability that government spending will double again in the
1970s, unless a major change in attitude takes place."
It would be a good idea to hang Mr. Stans' figures and warnings on the wall of
congressional committee rooms ?very time anybody from the administration is
pleading for more money to fight the war.
Noted And Passed
Anniversary: This week marks an
anniversary which requires mention. It
was seventeen years ago, on June 27,
that President Truman ordered General
Douglas MacArthur to protect South
Korea from the North Koreans who hod
swarmed across the border. The Ko
rean "police action" was officially
under way.
At this very moment, Washington is
more concerned about a possible re
sumption of the Korean war than at any
time in the intervening seventeen years.
Question?: Why is it that the Peace
Corps has not operated in Vietnam?
Wouldn't that be a logical place for the
teachers, medics, social workers, ex
perts in agriculture and reconstruction
to do their good works?
Traditionally, the Peace Corps
sends its people only to countries
where the Government extends an invi
tation. Can it be that official Washing
ton has unofficially told the Government
of South Vietnam not to make such a
r
request?
Or, doe? Washington distrust the
Peace Corps since the Peace Corps
demonstrations against the Vietnam
war?
Boom! Thf economic boom isn't
the only boom you'll be reading and
hearing about in the days ahead. The
sonic boom is going to get a lot of
headline space. And a sonic boom is
a pretty fearful thing to the unprepared
Nor is it the most gentle alarm clock
for the sleeping citizen.
Oklahoma City was boom-tested in
1964. Coming up are more boom tests,
over land and sea. How soon, no one
quite knows, but a great deal of test
ing must be done before the super
sonic transports are made operational.
Petition: Forty-nine of the leading
economists in the United States have
signed a petition to the Congress urg
ing it not to remove the 25 percent gold
backing from our currency.
The Fra$fc;tfn Times
published 1S70 - ?
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SENATOR TOWER AND
THURGOOD MARSHALL
The editor of one of my favor
ite newspapers. J. C Phillips of
the Borger (Tex.) Xews-Herald.
recently wrote an open litter to
one of my favorite United States
senators. John C. Tower.
Editor Phillips wanted to know,
in effect, why John Tower wasn't
screaming his objections to the
nomination of the NAACP law
yer. Thurgood Marshall, to a seat
on the Supreme Court.
Now. John Tower is very well
qualified to speak for himself
and. along with Editor Phillips. >1
shall await with great interest
Senator Tower's words and deeds
as they pertain to this particular
nomination.
Having said that, permit an
observation or' two that might
contain the answex to Editor
Phillip's question.
First off. John Tower is one of
the five best senators in the con
gress. He is absolutely without
fear, is extraordinarily intelligent,
loves Texas with a sentiment
that approaches the maudlin, and.
in the main, votes right.
He has a fault: He has locked
himself into the Republican par
ty. He is a "ball player", is the
way politicians put it. meaning
that he may be expected to go
along with party policy. More
over. one begins to suspect. John
Tower is lying in the weeds so far
as flie Republican vice-presidenti
al nomination is concerned. And.
so far as the party is concerned,
he is a very valuable asset in that
respect. Tower is the only gold
braided Republican in the land
whom Southern people would
listen to vis-a-vis George Wallace.
It isn't likely the party will over
look that fact, oncc Wallace an
nounces and the Republicans be
gin looking for some meaningful
person to fill the second slot.
And if John Tower were to
accept that nomination and if he
were to take to the stump in op
position to George Wallace, prob
abilities are it would destroy
Tower, not Wallace.
Unlike Tower, Wallace is not
locked in to party; he is locked
in to the proposition that White
and Negroes live more amicably,
equally, but apart. Wallace doesn't
believe you can rub White and
Black noses and achieve anything
like social tranquility. He says so.
right out. And so far as I can tell,
that is the only material differ
ence in the public posture of the
two, Wallace speaks out for social
segregation of the races.
-O
Now, John Tower was not
elected by Republicans, whatever
the myth. He was elected by dis
JOHN J. 5YN0M
sident Democrats. Those same
dissident people, with rare excep
tion. are Wallace all the way. So,
if John Tower has his sights on
the Republican vice-presidential
nomination, you may look for
no loud noises from him re
Thurpood Marshall. Sure as shoot
ing. the Republican party will
not oppose the confirmation and,
being a ball player with hope of
being put on the first team.
Tower in all likelihood will issue
some equivocal statement, noth
ing more, and hope to let it go at
that.
And if that day comes, it will
be one of the saddest I will
have known in politics. For. in
doing so. John Tower will have
cut his umbilical cord: he will,
have chosen the national scene
rather than Texas as his base. He
will have made the classic politi
cal mistake: He will have forgot
ten where he came from, from
whence springs his strength. He
will learn, thereafter, that Texas
conservatism is as unforgiving as
it is strong. It will choke out
Tower's political life. The only
thing that could sjve him would
be election as vice president, a
most unlikely occurrance since,
as a winning force in presidential
elections, the Republican party is
dead.
_o
It is not conceivable that John
Tower does not realize this. As I
imply, he is brilliant - and I don't
use that word in connection with
politicians, not very often. That
being so. and the choice being
his. what John Tower does as it
pertains to Thurgood Marshall
will be done after careful con
sideration. He will either remain
a Texan, that is. clobber the
NAACP mouthpiece, or he will
become a calculating gambler,
risking everything on a single
throw of the dice, the Republi
can vice-presidential nomination.
If I were to hazard a guess as
to Tower's ultimate decision ?
this presupposes of course that
he is considering the situation as
outlined - I would guess he will
remain what he has been all the
days of his life, a Texan.
A person who has Tower's well
being at heart woulu suggest that
decision. John Tower is young,
still very young and, if he gives
himself a chance, he will - to re
turn to the original metaphor ??
go to bat many times in the years
to come and against pitching
more to his liking than this.
Being a political "ball player"
is, in most instances, the way to
get along. The trick lies in not
striking out.
From The Office Of
Congressman Fountain
Washington, D. C. - As this report Is written, I cannot predict
the final outcome on a bill to prohibit interstate travel (or the
purpose of Inciting riots and other disorder. The legislation was
to have been before the House last week but a vote was put off
until this week.
However, I have been Intensely interested In this subject and
you have, too, from the conversations! have had with many per
sons In the Second District and the letters I have received from
others.
I thought you might be Interested In the remarks I prepared for
debate on the antl-rlot bill when It reached the House floor.
Here they are:
Mr. Speaker, I wish to announce that my distinguished col
league from North Carolina, Mr. Whltener, Is absent on official
business today, but I want the Members to know that if he were
here he would be actively supporting H. R. 421; because as a
member of the Judiciary Committee, he recognized the need for
this legislation and worked vigorously to get It to the House floor
for consideration.
I rise In support of H.R. 421, which Is long overdue legis
lation. I myself had Introduced substantially the same legis
lation and also Introduced Hoy* Resolution 522 on June
14 in a further effort to get legislation on this crucial problem.
It must be enacted. If we are to maintain any semblance of
civility In this country.
The left wing has been saying recently that the question Is
not whether riots are to be Stopped but whether the basic
causes are to be attacked. I have never heard anything as
patently naive as that.
For some reason, everything nowadays Is blamed auto
matically and uncritically on, the "ghette." No one, In
cluding myself, would argue that life Is pleasant In poor,
crowded housing. We would all agree that satisfying em
ployment Is a tonic to anyone's well-being. '
But to say that to be poor Is a stimulant to riots and dis
order Is Ignoring the simplest and most basic precepts of
human relationship.
We have mad* a big thing in recent yeara about finding and
'j identifying the poverty-stricken. They number, we are told,
In tbe millions If we accept an arbitrary yardstick of number*
of dollar* In Income.
I think the fallacy In that sort of thinking should be obvious,
but unfortunately, it Isn't to a good many people.
But by any standards, the number of persons actually and
honestly poor today Is far, far less than In previous years. Yet,
riots and disregard lor law and order flourish as never
before. So how can the sheer fact of poverty be blamed
wholly and incessantly for every act of civil violence that
takes place In this country?
No, Mr. Speaker, that simply cannot be done.
Riots across our land have persistently and consistently
followed Itinerant rabtalerousers espousing violence pure
and simple. Mesmerizing the unthinking?just as Hitler did r
only three short decades ago In Ms Nasi rallies? these
peddlers of hate and disorder have only one goal. That Is :
the complete destruction of American society which has been ;
so carefully and delicately nourished for almost 200 years. :
It Is time that something is done to halt those who could
destroy our lives, our institutions and our country. I urge
passage of H. R. 421. '