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LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
Still A Molehill
The much-ado over that unpaved
road in northeastern Franklin County
smells of splitting hairs. The Raleigh
newspaper seems to be attempting to
make a mountain from a poorly con
structed molehill.
The 1.86 miles of gravel-covered
red clay is hardly worth all the fuss
and bother surrounding it at the mo
ment. True it will shorten the distance
between the sections of Franklin and
Warren Counties involved and this is
worthy of note. However, the unkept
dirt roads leading to and from it make
its useage doubtful.
Rep. James Speed's involvement in
the controversy has been misinterpret
ed and vrfiile Mr. Speed is capable of
defending himself without our help, it
should be pointed out that the final
approval of the project was left to the
Board's of County Commissioners in
both counties.
The funds for the road will be
taken from each county's secondary
road allotment. Somewhere, someone
is doing without a road improvement
in order that State Road No. 1444 can
be built This, however, is a decision
arrived at by the elected members of
the Board of Commissioners. If the
decision to use money in this manner
instead of elsewhere was a poor one, it
is nevertheless their decision. If it was
wise, it is to their credit.
Our investigation shows a number
of people could benefit from the road.
Forty-five families live between the
Speed residence and the connecting
road and while all, some or none may
use the new strip, it is nevertheless
there for them.
The Raleigh newspaper obviously
went to great lengths to "uncover"
this little item. It was hardly worth its
time. If it is truly interested in Frank
lin County roads, it might wish to
search out an answer as to what ever
happened to N.C. 56 and more recent
ly, vtfiat's happening to N.C. 39.
If the Raleigh newspaper's in
ference that Mr. Speed has exerted
influence to gain a little piece of dirt
road is correct, then perhaps Mr.
Speed might exert a little more and
find answers to the above questions.
In any event, our investigation has
disclosed no wrong-doing in the mat
ter and as long as the two governing
Boards of the counties are satisfied it
is likely the mountain will remain
what it has been all along- just a
molehill.
r
Two Views Of Franklin i
FBI At Franklin Schools \
Durham Morning Herald I
The Franklin County Board of
Education, which has had more than
its share of problems, opened its
schools this year under a sweeping
court-ordered integration plan and
fortunately found that a threatened
massive boycott has failed to material
ize.
But it did find 15 FBI agents and
two Justice Department attorneys on
hand as "observers" and it promptly
protested, first to the Justice Depart
ment in Washington and then to the
The Ervin Version
The News and Observer
FBI agents were on hand last week
for the opening of public schools in
Franklin County, the scene of much
racial unrest in the past and the
subject of a new desegregation plan
just implemented in the classrooms.
The presence of law enforcement of
ficers was undoubtedly an affront to
some Franklin citizens, but it was
surely aimed at preventing rather than
causing trouble. And almost anyone
familiar with Fr?- Klin County's recent
racial history couid see some justifica
tion for this precautionary measure.
The "almost" must be stressed. U.
S. Sen. Sam Ervin no sooner got wind
of the FBI's appearance in Louisburg
than he fired off a letter of protest to
U. S. Atty. Gen. Ramsey Clark. The
letter was part argument for "freedom
of choice" school desegregation plans,
part indignation about Clark's inflict
ing FBI officers on Franklin County.
"I would expect such conduct in a
police state," Ervin wrote, "but not in
a society which is supposed to be
free ... I feel it compounds tryanny
many times for you to assign to the
FBI the job of supervising our State
schools."
The letter deserves analysis. Frank
lin County schools are not under the
supervision of the FBI, of course. The
FBI presumably was on hand in case
violence broke out. The schools were
ordered to integrate under a court
approved plan, to bring the educa
tional system into compliance with
federal law. The FBI's role was to
m8ke sure that order was preserved in
the process of compliance with the
law and the court plar>.
Senator Sam's criticism puts him in
the rather unlikely position of being
opposed to law and order. But then
one man's "law and order" is
?rtother's "police state."
offices of Senator Jordan (who was <
out of the country on a mission) and
Senator Ervin.
Just what the government had in |
mind by sending FBI agents to the i
schools on registration day and then
returning them, despite the board's <
strong objection, on two subsequent
days hain't been explained by the
government other than the reported
FBI excuse that they were there to
"observe". But the government does
owe Franklin County a full explana
tion.
The school board occupied a ten
able position in its contention that the
FBI presence would serve no useful
purpose, and that it could cause some
parents to keep their children at home
by indicating trouble might be brew
ing. The board can be credited with
doing the best it could under trying
conditions to open the schools. It
deserves praise, not harassment in any
form.
In his message to Atty. Gen.
Ranrvey Clark on the Franklin issue.
Senator Ervin has made one point in
his observation that FBI agents could
have been "more effectively and legiti
mately used in other parts of our
nation fighting organized crime" and
another in "that state and local of
ficials in North Carolina have every
intention of upholding the law even if
they disagree with it" It would be
difficult for Mr. Clark to disagree on
either count.
Whether in Franklin or in other
counties with school integration pro
blems, the key to real and lasting
progress toward solving them rests
largely with the citizenry. Presence of
federal agents on the scene, as in the
Franklin instance, can create the im
pression, whether or not such is the
case, that Uncle Sam questions the
good faith and lacks confidence in the
ability of school officials and patrons
to deal with such matters.
The Fra^n Times
Tin riaMiNa THm?. Ik.
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Road Service
The News and Observer
That $32,000 road which State
tep. James Speed so arduously sought
o bridge Warren and Franklin coun
ies in an area where he lives and
arms bears little resemblance to those
vhich cross Champion McDowell
Davis' plantation acreage near Wil
nington.
This road, now under construction,
s not being built on private property
n apparent violation of long-standing
:ommission policy. It is not laid to
serve just one corporate or individual
jeneficiary. It isn't named ? yet ? for
?rjy public official's wife.
Representative Speed disclaims any
search or personal convenience in urg
ing construction of this road which
will make it considerably easier for
him to get from his home in Franklin
County to a farm he leases in Warren
County. The road, he says, will help
various interested parties, including
the State Forestry Service, which will
gain new access. to timoerianas <nony
the road, and "several hundred" local
citizens who would like a better toute
between the two counties.
Still, questions arise. The new road
will extend a dead-end route which is
the site of only one house, and that is
the one on the farm Speed leases. It
probably will never be a school bus
route. This route doesn't meet regular
State secondary system, so it got in by
being dubbed a "connector road."
And, whether it is coincidental or not,
the fact remains that the distance
between Speed's home and the leased
farm will be shaved from approxi- -
matelyVl to five miles.
The first question this leads to is
whether the $32,000 estimated as the
ultimate cost of this road was not
more urgently needed elsewhere in the
highway district in which Speed re
sides. If it was, the central question is
why State Highway Commission pro
cedure and policy permit such expen
ditures.
On Our Decline And Fall
The Courier-Tribune, Asheboro, N. C.
TWO NEWS reports attract
ed our attention this week,
seemingly mreleted But
maybe they weren't entirely.
In tact, each represented in
their way a foreboding of A
merica's decline and fall
much as ancient Rome Mr
rendered to its Md (ate.
Oh, we're not decrying mini
skirts, the youth rebeHon and
other farms a ( moral dege
nercy that popularly were eup
poeed to have brought the
crawling Roman Empire to
its knees. No, sorry.
What happened to sur toga
dad, itlnelorh^ Italian
friends was probably far sim
pler to
Historians might argue
that Roma's aristocracy was
fntloving and decadent ? in
(act, addicted imbibers of the
grape But the moral tarpti
feode was only part of their
defttnipg glory. Their obitua
ries might hare been written
in the additives they em
ployed to reduce touring of
wtee.
Chemical analysis of Ro
r?h ?mounts of lead, a
University of Calif ornis ch?
mist baa revealed. It came
from a germkilling chemical,
lead oxide, used to preserve
wine.
life span of Roman aristo
crata was notoriously low,
perhaps attributable to lead
poisoning that makes mod
ern mining and painty *
hazard.
In twentieth century Amer
ica, U. S. automobiles exude
tons of lead into the atmos
phere through their exhausU
? boosting the average con
centration of lead in citizens'
bloodstreams to 0.23 parts per
million. This is about one
third of the amount found in
patients sutfeiing from acute
lead poisoning which could re
sult in death.
So, draw your own parallels
between ancient Rome and
the highly-mobiliied. exhaust
poisoned U. S. of A.
The second news story we
mentioned?
Oh, it had something to do
with a new vending machine
some foreign nation invented
aad imports to the west. The
first landed last Wtek in Mia
mi. It dispenses money.
\ ! \ Mill*' ? D?i ^oin? R?gift?r
1 start kara . . . and kara . . . art hart'
*
Instant credit. All you do 1*
inert your credit card and
out pops fifty bucks. No dif
ferent from the other credit
cards the average shoppers
carries about, except that this
one pays off in ready folding
money that you'll pay back
later.
In relation to the decline
and fall of the American em
pire, we suspect the latter
news Item speaks for itself.
I been crying all night. Its' got so this ain't a fit place to live
and raise youngins' in. If somebody don't move them
busy-bodies out of Washington the whole world is going to
come smashing down on each and everyone of us ... .
I wasn't too concerned when they give Russia all that
wheat ... and I didn't cry when they let Cassius Clay run
loose . . . and even though I stayed awake ... I didn't take no
pills when the Democrats picked Hubert ... but this latest
thing is about to trouble me to death . . .
Some nut slipped a small-lettered provision in the 1964
Civil Rights Act . . . (we didn't think much of the provisions in
regular size print neither) . . . that takes the cake ... and we
suspect is gonna take quite a few other things too, before its
over with . . .
The white coats that is going to handle this latest little
fag ... is a gang known as the Equal Employment Oppor
tunity Commission ... and if that ain't enough to turn your
stomach . .,. read on . . . This bevy of bureaucrats in Washing
ton .. . where else? ... are going to begin ... on November
30 . . . (that's after the election, if you get what we mean) to
enforce this little-lettered provision.
And what do you suppose these bitty-brained bureaucrats
have come up with now? You'd never guess. Now they say
(oh, me) . . . 'There is no difference In the world between men
and women." See ... 1 told you you wouldn't believe it. Want
me to repeat it? They said ... oh, well . . . They said it ... we
sure didn't . . .
After that date ... if the white coats are still around ... if
you want a lady to sell lingerie . . . you're liable to get a big
old burly truck driver . . . 'cause you can't say in the ad that
you'd really rather have a girl . . . Now this makes about as
much sense as many other things coming out of Washington
these days . . but let's face it . . . this time they've gone too
far...
Even though . . . with the long hair . . tight pants . . black
boots and love (love?) chains these days most of us can't tell
the difference . . . and with these kind of examples . . who
cares to know? But . . . there is some nut loose in this country
that needs to be caught . . and we mean right now ... If he
don't know the difference . . . bov he'* danwroiK
The EEOC . . (sounds like what I said when I first read the
notice) . . can surely think up something more sensible than
this . . . Why don't they find another street corner for Stoke
ley . . . or find a job for that fellow in the White House who
is . . . joyfully . . . going to be unemployed shortly after the
turn of the year . . . And they might as well be looking a good
drug store location for Hubert .,. .
Whatever they're doing . . . one thing is clear . . Congress
passed the law and If EEOC don't know the difference
between boys and girls . . . maybe Congress ought to tell
'em ....
There may not be any difference where EEOC lives ... but
there sure is here in our part of the country . . . and we want
everybody in that buggy place called Washington to get one
thing straight ... we don't want anybody making that dif
ference illegal, either.
And we thought HEW was nuts .
LET US FILL
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