The Ff
Pwfclittorf irt'f Tv?W*f A Tfcunim
Times
Your Award Winning County Newspaper
LOCAL EDITORIAL COMMENT
If It's Good Enough For Others ,
It's Good Enough For Us
In recent years a number of situa
tions have arisen which have indicated
that Franklin County has been snake
-bitten. This old saying, usually appli
ed to those who continue in the
throws of bad luck or misfortune
most assuredly can apply in many
cases to Franklin County. -
Often times it was an industry that
decided to locate elsewhere. For near
ly thirty years, it was highway im
provements that . went someplaces
other than Franklin. Political appoin
tments and promises seemed to evapo
rate when Franklin was mentioned.
Isolated incidences where they would
be a discredit were blown out of
proportions and the good things have
too often been overlooked.
Where Franklin has been referred
to as a "Have-Not" county. It can also
often times be correctly referred to as
the "Left-Out" county.
For reasons best known to those
directly involved, Franklin County,
over the years, has been excluded
from a number of laws passed in the
General Assembly which have applied
to the majority of the state. It is
doubtful that any would ever admit it
as a reason, but it is a good bet that
there were- and still are- locals who do ?
not want to relinquish their power
over the activities of the county.
The most recent example to come
to light is the 1959 law which allows
municipalities in 93 of North Caro
lina's 100 counties to annex outlying
areas under, of course, certain legal
procedures. Those who represented
the county in that session of the
legislature apparently felt that offi
cials in Franklin were not as capable
as those in the 93 counties included.
This or the power reason are the only
two that can hold water. What other
reason could there be for excluding
Franklin? We like to think that offi
cials of the town of Louisburg, Frank
linton, Bunn, Youngsville and Center
ville then-and now--are every bit as
capable of making this type of deci
sion as like officials in the other
counties of the state. If the law is
good, why can't Franklm municipali
ties participate? If it's bad why are 93
counties covered by it? And we note,
with interest, that no Franklin delega
tion member has introduced a bill to
repeal the ten-year-old act. Thus, is it
not reasonable to assume our repre
sentatives believe it to be a good law?
If not, why not? If so, why not
Franklin?
The Louisburg Town Council in
1967 and again two weeks ago offi
cially requested that a bill be intro
duced amending the law to include
the municipalities in Franklin County.
In 1967, Louisburg's, and a similar
request by Franklinton officials, was
ignored by the Franklirt delegation.
Last week, such a measure was intro
duced in the Senate by Senator E. F.
Griffin. It now rests in the Local
Government Committee.
Some seasoned political observers
say it is going to die there. It should
not. The Senator and Representative
James Speed of Franklin and Rep.
John Church of Vance should all push
to have Franklin included in the law
or they should push to have the law
repealed.
If it's good for 93 percent of North
Carolina, it should be good enough for
Franklin County. It's time Franklin
was counted in. For too long, and in
too many ways. Franklin has been
counted out. It is time to bury the
negative approach and turn our think
ing more to a positive one.
Leadership should be exerted by
our elected leaders and there is no
time like now.
Is It Surrender?
No crystal ball was needed to
predict beforehand that the meeting
between President Nixon and Presi
dent Thieu would result in the with
drawal of 25,000 American troops
from Vietnam. It was clear from the
start that some troop withdrawals
would be announced.
Most Americans are happy to hear
the news. The thought of American
men coming home is heartening. It's a
pity it doesn't ring true.
The withdrawal of these troops is
no more advisable in light of today in
Vietnam than it was twelve months
ago. It represents another step in a
retreat from there by this country.
Every concession granted at the Paris
peace talks has been a one way affair.
We have given in to the Communists.
Even this has not halted their acts of
violence in Vietnam. The war goes on.
It will go on after we have weakened
our forces.
While we rejoice for those being
returned let us weep for those who
must remain. They will be weaker.
Their task will be no less difficult
because Washington wants to make a
show to appease those who for rea
sons of their own, refuse to fight for
their country.
An end to the war in Vietnam
would be exultation to us all, but we
have never won a war by withdrawal
of troops and we never will. Neither
will we strengthen out bargaining posi
tions in Paris.
The enemy understands only one
thing and that is power. Until we
convince him that we intend to win
this war on the battlefield or at the
peace table, we aren't likely to see the
end.
If the President in making this
transparent show, speaks for the draft
card burners and those crying for
surrender, he speaks not for us. Nor,
we suspect does he speak for the
survivors of the 30,000 men who have
given their lives for far more than a
surrender.
Somebody needs to speak for
them. Surely, they did not die in vain.
? The Fr&^tyfci Times
Established 1870 - Published Tuaadays ti Thursday! by
The Franklin Times. Inc.
Biclutt Bird. Dial OYS-8288 Loulsbuif. N. C.
CUNT FULLER, M*n>fin| Editor ELIZABETH JOHNSON, Buahieaa Msnaf^
NATIONAL EDITORIAL
AdvaitWng Rata. ^ | ASSOCIATION
Upon Raquaat
SUBSCRIPTION RATES
la North CaroUm: Out of State:
On* Yaw, $4 64; Sbc Month*. $2.88 On. Yaar, $6.50; Sh Mentha, $4.00
Thraa Months, $2.08 Thraa Months, $8.60
' i
m m?M aisttos sod P?fu*> *** 11 th* ^ ofBce " Lou Mm n. W. C. 17S49.
'Bend! ? Bend! ? Bend!'
WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING
Who Wants This Job?
The News Reporter, Whiteville, N. C.
Would you like to be a policeman,
a sheriff, deputy sheriff, highway pa
trolman, G-man or some other type of
law enforcement person?
Perhaps so, you may agree, and just
so long as you are not called on to
face the business end of a gun barrel
with another fellow's finger on the
trigger.
The life of an officer of the law
may look easy and a good way to
grow thick around the middle. But it
is not altogether this way. When duty
calls, you know . . . and the man with
the badge must take risks with his life
that would make the rest of us hie off
like a scared rabbit.
"They have it made," most of us
assume when a patrol cruiser rolls by
with a couple of lawmen on the
inside. 'That's the kind of job I
want?" But do you?
While out on the beat, some hold,
he's overpaid and it's a waste of
money. When he picks you up for
violating the speed law, he's the worst
skunk in the land. When he interrupts
your operation down by the creek,
* he's an enemy of private enterprise.
But when your home is invaded
and prize possessions taken, when a
fellow makes off with the only one
and the best car you own, or when
some vagrant accosts you in the dark
with a switch-blade demanding your
wallet or your life, then, and right
then, the officer of the law is sorely
underpaid, nothing is too good for
him and you are his friend for life.
But the human makeup is a fickle
quantity. It all depends on whose life
and property are at stake.
Some days past two convicts escap
ed from prison and in their dash for
freedom they invaded a private home
in Robeson County. For 18 hours
they held the family under threat of
death and during the long period of
bondage the two violated the sanctify
and honor of one member of the
family.
This could have happened to your
family or mine.
But the law took over. It was
surrender or shoot it out. One of the
desperadoes chose the former, coming
forth with hands on his head. The
second held out for some hours.
Finally, one brave officer, knowing
full well the second escapee was well
armed and could take his measure
with one shot, stripped off his belt
and weapon and walked to the house.
He went in and came out with the
object of his act.
Is this the kind of man we say is
overpaid, is a skunk and ought not be
allowed to wear the badge of a law
enforcement officer? ?
Would you like to have his job?
Curious Lesson In Freedom
VIEWPOINT By Jene Helms
Former State Senator Tom White, by
making sense himself, has once again em
phasized the functional absurdity of the
back-slapping mutual admiration society
known as the Board of Trustee* of the
University of North Carolina.
It Is scarcely a matter of Mr. White's
seriously expecting that his fellow trustees
will follow hlt-or anybody else's-lead in the
establishment of practical, workable policies
for the well-being of the university. The
name of the game, Insofar as certainly the
majority of trustees are concerned, is dont
rock-t he-boat.
Through the years, Senator White has
observed countless startling defects in the
operation of the university-defects which,
by and large, could have been corrected with
relative ease. Many a headache might later
have been avoided by the simple application
of reasonable rules and regulations.
Last Monday at Charlotte when the trus
tees gathered for a regular session. Senator
White decided that it was time for the boat
to be rocked. It had come to his attention
that student newspapers on the University's
campuses at Chapel Hill and Raleigh had
developed a fetish for the use of barnyard
language. Senator White thought that this
business ought to stop and, since the Univer
sity's administrators had done nothing about
It, that it was the duty of the University's
trustees to see that It was stopped.
So he proposed a resolution. First of all,
the resolution would have the trustees "de
plore" the use of such language, and call for
an end to It. Secondly, the Senator proposed
that students no longer be forced to sub
scribed to the campus newspapers. Aa mat
ters now stand, every student Is required to
subsidize, through mandatory student fees,
his campus newspaper.
Senator White's proposal last Monday
caused squirming throughout the room.
, There was embarraased silence, until State
Senator Bill Saunders of Southern Pines
gamely seconded the motion by Senator
White. Hien began the typical backing -a nd
flling, the hedging, the pious declaration.
"I'm sure," said one trustee, "that every -
; body in this room deplores the use of such
I language." Then the other riioe fell. "But"~
I
there is always that Inevitable "but" "But it
would be better if it can be worked out
through the publications board."
Where, in the name of old Ned, has the
"publications board" been all this time?
How long must one wait before somebody In
authority warns the immature little boys
with the nasty minds-the ones who have
been writing and publishing the obscene
campus editoriab -that this kind of irrespon
sibility will not be tolerated? This is a
decision that any publications board -and
certainly the president of the University
could have made over a five-minute cup of
coffee point is that nothing, to this
good hour, has been done,
So Senator White's proposal went down
the drain. No instruction by the trustees, to
the president, or to the publications board.
The trustees did manage to muster the
courage to say they dont like obscenity.
The larger qutsMon, of course, Involves ? >
bit of freedom that ought to be accorded ;
every student attending any college or unl- <
versity. If campus editors are to feel no 1
restraints upon their conduct, and no discip
lines, then why should any other student be
forced, against his will, to subscribe to the
campus newspaper? What could be a greater
example of freedom than to allow each
student, according to his own choice, to
decide whether he wants to help finance the
publication of, for example, THE DAILY
TAR HEEL at Chapel Hill or THE TECHNI
CIAN at Raleigh? Why not require the
editors and staff members of these news
papers to get out and sell subscriptions?
That, apparently, Is carrying freedom too
far-ln the eyes of the trustees of the
University. Thus the prevailing notions of
"freedom" will continue at the Unhrerstty
the kind of freedom that embraces the
concept of captive audiences and subsidised
editors. The young people at Chapel Hill and
Raleigh who happen to dielike four-letter
words In their campus Journals can like It or
lump It. But, thanks to the trustees of the
university, and despite Senator Tom White's
beat efforts, tMe students apparently will
continue to be forced to subsidise what th?y
may not like.
It is a curious leason In freedom.
"COME
TO
THINK
OF IT..."
by
frank count
> Y'all remember about this time last year, I told you I had
got me one of them riding lawn mowers? Y'all might
reipember 1 had quite a time starting it until the neighbor's
little girl come over and jerk the rope? Well, things ain't got no
better. No, sir. Not nary a bit better.
I been letting the little woman drive the thing. It gives her
something to do. It gets her otit in the outdoors and that's
good for her. It's good for mi. too, especially when I'm
indoors and she's out- well you get the idea.
^ Now I aint one of the folks that believes that in-an-i-mal
objects got a personality. No. sir. I don't believe in spooks and
I know full well lawn mowers ain't got no sense. Mine aint,
that's for sure. That's what I keep telling myself. My lawn
mower ain't got no personality. It ain't got no sense. It can't
talk and it cant think Cpr itself. That's what I been telling me
all day. And you know what? I ain't believing a blame bit of it.
I took me a notion to hose down the garage yesterday and I
had to move the mower from where it's been sitting for nigh
on two weeks. The little woman didn't want to mess up her
hair. Fact is she's lazy. That's why she ain't been cutting the
grass. She used to say every day, "Frank County, you sorry
no-good rascal, if you'd buy me one of them riding mowers
like everybody else has got (she always says that. Everybody
else in the whole wide world has got everything we ain't) . . If
you would bu$r me one, I'd keep this yard mowed." That's
what she said and that's what I done. I should a known better.
She said "I do" once but it ain't done that neither.
Anyway, when I tried to move that blame mower so's I
could wash the garage, it didn't want to move. I jerked and
pushed and pulled and talked to the thing. I think I hurt its
feelings. It finally moved, but 1 could tell it didn't want to and
just as soon as my back was turned, the blame thing headed
right back in the garage. I threw a chair at it. I think I hurt its
feelings agin.
Then when I got through washing me and the garage, I
decided to wash that danged mower. The more water I poured
on it, w?e more it kicked off. I just figured it was the oil on it
but I ain't sure.
Anyway, just to be contrary, I left the blame thing out in
the hot sunshine to teach it a lesson and then last night come
the order from headquarters: "Prank County, you no-good
raacal, if you don't mow that grass . . bla, bla. bla". To get
away from the bias, I decided to mow. That was a mistake.
I pulled until my shoe strings come undone and the thing
wouldn't start. I took the spark plug out and soaked it in gas. I
pulled some more. I ain't never seen such a contrary machine.
It kept popping back at me. Good thing it was a rope and not
a crank or I'd be picking this with no fingers.
I outdone it. It took nearly a hour, but I outdone it. It give
up and started. I floored it and shot all the loose gas out of the
thing. It bucked and I fell off. I begun to suspect something
right then. That crazy lawn mower was trying to tell me
something but I wasn't listening.
It (tuck me twice in the ditch. It threw me off one time and
It knocked off two-or-three times. When I'd jump off to start
It agin, it'd start up and leave me standing. I had to run and
hop on like I wen Hoot Gibson do one time in the movies.
Now I can live with all this. I figure I'm as tough as any
mower alive. Especially this woman loving four-wheeler of
mine. Why it caters to the little woman's touch rather than
mine. III never know. I know I made it mad when I give it a
bath, but it wont no excuse for what it done to me.
No, sir, when it stole my glasses and chunked them up that
tree I'd had a plenty. Didnt find them til the next
morning . . . hanging there on the limb. That blame mower has
got to go. Yes, sir, I'm gonna put it out of its misery. Today.
Yes, sir, today. I'm gonna shoot the blame thing.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
To the Editor:
No offense to you or any
reporter for you are only
doing your job in reporting
the newt. Keep up the good
work.
We cut pick up a paper
to read or turn on a radio or
T.V. to hear the newt but
what tome are talking about
the need of an Increase in
taxaa. Maybe we do need an
increaae in tax. I dont really
know.
The support of our county
or any county ahould be the
duty of every citizen. There
waa a page and a half of
namaa In the paper laat week
just u It tf every year of
those who have not paid their
tax. I believe It to be the duty
of every dtlaen to help (up
port our county and one way
of doing so la to keep your
tax paid. Franklin County Is
not perfect but neither ue
the other ninty-nlne that -
should not give anyone a fad
ing of non support for our
county.
I believe it to be the duty
of our county commissioners
and any other officiate need
ed to get themaeivea buiy and
find ways of collecting thoee
back taxaa instead of (pend
ing their tlma , figuring on
way* to Incraaae them- for ;
thoee who will pay their tax.
This la aimed at no one
peraon or peraona but Just to
remind everybody of their
duty to help support our
county by keeping their taxaa i[
paid and not depend on Juata
few to do so. Lett all worit
together -It's easier that way)
Elizabeth Murphy
Route 3
Louisburg, N. C.