The Joirui - Patriot INDEPENDENT IN POLITICS Published Mondays and Thursdays at North Wilkesboro, North Carolina JULIUS C. HUBBARD—4(118. D. J. CARTER Publisher* 1#S8—DANIEL J. CARTER—1»4» SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One Year $2.00 (la Wilkes and Adjoining Counties) One Year 1 _* $3.00 (Outside Wilkes and Adjoining Counties) Rates to Those in Service: One Year (anywhere) — $2.00 Entered at the postofflce at North Wilkes boro, North Carolina, as Second-Class mattsr under Act of March 4, 1879. Thursday, February 17, 1949 North Carolina : ' PUSS ASSOCIATI0 Pastures Turn Red Hills To Green Nothing gives a worse impression of the economy of a community than gully scarred hills, barren, infertile and abso ft lutely worthless in that state. During the past 20 years great strides have been made in Wilkes in the develop ment of pastures. Hills once covered with broom sedge, except where scarred with red gullies, are now covered in verdant grass. There still remains vast areas of land, in multiple plots and in every community, which produce nothing because it is erod ed and wasted away. A greater livestock industry is beginning to utilize that land with permanent pasture, and some of the steeper slopes are being left to grow timber. If the trend continues we shall have a more prosperous and more attract ive county. Buying Seren Eggs You Didn't Eat Did you know that last year you pur chased seven eggs that you didn't eat? Last year the government bought 2.8 million cases of eggs in its price-support ing operations. That's only 7 eggs per per son! If each person had just eaten 7 more eggs sometime during the 366 days of 1948, the government wouldn't have had to enter the market. The cost to «ach individual for those 7 eggs was 26.6c. The 143 million persons residing in this country paid for the eggs but they didn't eat them. It looks like the government will have to drain off about the same number of eggs per person this year. How can we convince the public that it can avoid the $38 million expense of an egg support program simply by eating 7 more eggs per person in 1949. Bggs, along with milk, are classed as the perfect food, having all the necessary ingredients to sustain life. Seven more eggs for each person last year would not have been too much for anybody. When Illness Strikes One of the basic implications in argu ments on behalf of compulsory govern ment health insurance is that the great bulk of the American people are almost totally incapable of dealing with illness when it strikes. That implication is not supported by the facts. According to one authoritative report, more than 52,000,000 Americans now have hospital insurance; 26,000,000 have surgical insurance, and 9,000,000 have medical insurance. In addition, 31,000,000 have disability benefit insurance. An ar ticle in the Christian Science Monitor says that "about half of the 30,000,000 American workers who come under un employment compensation laws are get ting added protection, now, through vol untary programs that insure against wage loss, while employed, due to illness or other disability." This represents very remarkable pro gress, particularly in the light of the fact that the voluntary prepayment medical plans had to pass through a trial and er ror period at the beginning, and did not get going on a big scale until a relatively few years ago. At present, their growth is both steady and rapid, the cost is low, the extent of coverage has been substan-' tially broadened, and they clearly provide the soundest approach yet devised to the problem of paying for medical attention. There is a small percentage of the popu lation which is actually indigent, and which cannot deal with the problems of illness without outside aid. But, certainly, this group can be cared for without taxing the American people billions a year for a compulsory sfiheme for all—and with out setting the stage for completely so cialized medicine. Sefiator Connally warns Europeans that "the United States does jiot possess the Midas touch." But what probably worries Europeans most is the question of how long they will possess it in regard to us.— Greensboro Daily News. "I think women can be beautiful," says a Kentucky cosmetologist, "from the cra dle to the grave." But according to our observations, that's a little too much of a two-way stretch. — Greensboro Daily News. -THE EVERYDAY COUNSELOR By Rev. Herbert Spaugh Herbert t , D. D. j Here is a letter for you automobile driv ers who take chances, especially the young couples who do part of their courting in an automobile. It could also be read profit ably by new drivers who have just recent ly taken the wheel of an automobile. It was written by a railroad fireman whose train nearly crashed into a car at Fremont, Ne braska, and was sent as an open letter to "the youth and his girl" in thi car. "I don't know who you are^ it's true, but I do know you were scare<| to death Sunday evening near 9 'clock when you drove your car across directly ih front of a speeding passenger train. Itl was so close that I, in the cab, could I see the young girl (your sweetheart, I presume) throw her hands up in front oflher face and cringe up against you in stark horror. "If I were that young girl, I'd pull away from you, fast. You probtbly say you love'her. I wonder. Those wejlove we try to protect. But not you . . . "And how do you think we in jthe cab of that engine would feel? We ara human beings, too. We have young ones Voting home for us to return. We, too, could have been killed. \ "And you and your girl were one jsecond from eternity, Sunday, son. \ "I hope you read this and know it^neans you, and that your girl will, too. , Next time you go driving around, stop anci look. We don't want to hit you but we are! help less, as we cannot swerve away froijp our given rail. "If I were you, son, and you, too, sis, I'd thank God for that split second I He granted you Sunday evening. i "I said a prayer for all when I realized you were going across. Perhaps that's what saved us all. y "Now, think it over, both of you. And I'll bet you are both still shaking in jour shoes. ' "And, please, don't try it again." ; It was discovered that the train in ques tion was the Gold Coast Limited of Ithe Union Pacific Railway. So impressive was the letter that the railroad gave it tre mendous distribution in the territory which they serve. I Editor Olson of Now Magazine frach new issue since his arrival. He isn't in it; he has a* un isted phone. But he turned to the 3's anyway. There was ttie name —his name. He dialed the number, "is his W. A. Bertholdt?" h'e asked, 'William Arthur Bertholdt?" rhe i 'Did ]Hu Were y 11 liarrled to a girl named Bonnle|D< lives. "Th^ y Father, Bertho .t. sr end ir&ted Denverflsix was bo went contact same been ii Hert rt throug rm itlvee kept coming, ( sver live In Denver? i bi th< r Bertholdt agreed to lg. And when Herbert wi th< Pi rell?" still afflrma tu're sure as liell my rst out Herbert W. The i meet met W Biaih his search for a fath 1. ' Vllliam, It seems, sep froin his wife and left months after Herbert i. fierbert and his mother R iton,' N. M., and lost h William. The latter In 1928 bat hasn't phone book for yean, has stopped thumbing one books. it Book to th« llbnrr