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(Etjf Barrrn Srrord
Pubksh^d Every Thursday By
P 0 Bo* 70 • Wa«enton. N. C. 27509
BIGNALL JONES, Editor
North Carolina Press Association
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Odds Against The Draft
As long as there have been wars
men have either volunteered for
service, been conscripted by fiat or
draft, or impressed into the
services. Should there be another
conventional war it is highly likely
that men and women will be
drafted into the armed services.
Since the President,- as Com
mander-in-Chief, and his advisors,
have reached the conclusion that
due to the present difficulties with
Russia it would be wise to strength
en our armed forces, and that as a
first step toward this goal we
should require a registration of
those best qualified to serve in the
armed forces, we should accept his
judgment of good faith.
We would prefer that no women
be allowed to serve in combat as
soldiers, and would be happier if no
women would be allowed to train
for combat duty in times of peace.
3ut at the same time it would be
well for us to realize that the
countries with which we may be
involved conscript women for
combat duty. We should also
realize that in case of war that
women could well serve in many
non-combat positions, and by so
doing free men for combat duty.
For this reason we feel that
women, too, should be required to
register, but with a higher age
limit.
However, it should be recognized
that registering men and women
does not necessarily mean that
there will be any draft; the odds,
we feel, are against it.
Insuring Free Speech
In The Washington Post
Something is crazy when people
start buying First Amendment
insurance. But that is what is
happening. A Bermuda-based com
pany has developed a program to
permit the owners of most American
newspapers, magazines, book-publish
ing companies and broadcasting
stations to buy insurance that will
cover the costs of defending free
speech and a free press in court.
The arrangement, wofKefl out by the
American Newspaper Publishers
Association, appears to be both
businesslike and wise. First Amend
ment cases arise so frequently these
days and the legal fees involved are so
high that only the most financially
sound companies and publishers can
afford to get involved. It may well be
prudent management for companies or
individuals to insure themselves
against risks over which they have no
control.
What is striking about this is that the
good old U.S.A. survived for a couple of
centuries without a need of insuring
the First Amendment. Injunctions
against publication were not issued.
Trials were not held in secret.
Reporters were rarely called as
witnesses. Governments did not have
to be sued before they made available
information about their routine activi
ties.
All that has changed over the last
decade, and the costs of resisting the
trend have become almost prohibitive.
Some small newspapers, magazines
and broadcasting stations have quietly
surrendered their constitutional rights
because they could not pay the
lawyers' fees. Others have defended
those rights only after passing the hat
among wealthier groups or persuading
some public-spirited lawyer to handle
the case for little or no fee.
Part of this reflects a general
situation: taking any and every.matter
to court has become so time-consum
ing and expensive that only the rich
(who can afford the legal fees and
printing oortB) and th»poor 4lar whom
. the government pay* the bill) can
"avoid balancing what they may win
against what either a win or loss will
cost.
The principal culprit, however, is the
series of court decisions and govern
ment actions that have weakened the
First Amendment. How far the thing
has gone can be measured by the items
with which the exercise of press and
speech rights are not grouped. The
prudent man insures against losses
due to acts of God (fire, illness, death)
or acts or other persons (theft, fraud,
accident). Now it has become neces
sary for those who exercise a First
Amendment right to insure themselves
against acts of their own government.
Quotes
The little boy told me his cat's
name was Ben Hur. "Isn't that a
strange name for a cat?" I asked.
"Well, I used to call him Ben but
then he had kittens," he answered.
—The Saturday Evening Post.
News Of 10, 25 And 40 Years
Looking Back Into The Record
Feb. 17,1970
The Warren County Board
of County Commissioners
may seek professional help
in the restoration of build
ings at the Nathaniel Macon
Homeplace near Gaston
Lake.
More than 200 members of
the student body and faculty
members of Warren Aca
demy, Inc. met with the
principal and some interest
ed patrons for a brief flag
ceremony in front of the
school last Friday morning.
The flag and flag pole
were gifts to Warren
Academy from an interest
ed person whose name was
not revealed in the account
of the activities.
Members of the Warren
County Junior Chamber of
Commerce favor extension
of the town limits and a
delegation from the cham
ber appeared before the
commissioners on Monday
«<
night to make their views
known.
Feb. 18,1955
Howell Steed, Warrenton
merchant, has been appoint
ed one of a three-man
delegation to attend the
Farm Bureau Insurance
Companies advisory meet
ing to be held in Columbus,
Ohio, on March 11 and 12.
W. W. Taylor, Jr., Warren
County's Representative in
the General Assembly, has
been named to fourteen
committees of the House by
Speaker Larry I. Moore.
The regular meeting of
the Woman's Missionary
Society of the Wise Baptist
Church was held in the home
of Mrs. Carl Perkinaon on
Feb. 10 at 7:30 p. m. with
Mrs. J. W. Davis and Mrs.
Lena Williams co-hostesses.
The Rev. J. C. GUI, guest
speaker, spoke on missions.
Feb. IS, 1940
A Negro school at Manson
was blown off its foundation
Wednesday by the wind
which swept through this
section with gale velocity
throughout the day and far
into the night, uprooting at
least one tree in Warrenton,
twisting off a few limbs in
the yards of various
residents and toppling over
a few outbuildings here and
there.
Two homes here have
recently been entered by a
night prowler who apparent
ly was primarily interested
in securing food.
Friday night an unknown
person entered the home of
Eugene Odom on Ridgeway
Street and stole lard, sugar,
sausage, coffee and flour
and on Tuesday night
groceries were also stolen
from the residence of Miss
Estelle Davis on Main
Street
THE VALENTINE "
, .gsREO -
77?ftf MID - EAST I
<:INTERV£MTIQrt
Mostly Personal
Cow Power Runs Farm
By BIGNALL JONES
My wife, visiting Rocky
Mount last Friday, brought
me a copy of "Mother Earth
News," which always con
tains a great deal of thought
provoking ideas, some of
which may have personal
application, but most of
which do not.
From earlier copies of
"Mother Earth" I learned
that an airplane had been
run from solar power; that
gasoline could be conserved
by converting an 8-cylinder
car into a 4-cylinder
vehicle; that motor vehicles
may be successfully operat
ed from alcohol; that farm
ers may soon be producing
their own energy; and
scores of other ideas.
In the current issue I
learned that many foods can
be cooked in a compost pile;
how to build a small and
unique still, with which
farmers can produce fuel
with which to run their
tractors and automobiles
without reducing the value
of grains as livestock and
poultry feed, and of particu
lar interest to me was an
article in which wflSTetated
the experience of a dairy
man in Sweden in convert
ing cow manure into
methane gas, a substitute
Fund Raising
Event Sponsored
The Coordinating Council
for Senior Citizens of
Warren County is now
sponsoring a fund raising
event. A person may
possibly win a $100.00 gift
certificate for groceries to
be purchased at the I.G. A. in
Warrenton. The I.G.A. in
Warrenton is donating the
gift certificate.
The proceeds from this
event will be used to help
support the Coordinating
Council for Senior Citizens
so that it may continue to
offer services to the elderly
population of Warren Coun
ty.
The winner of the gift
certificate will be determin
ed on March 15 at 11 a. m. at
the I.G.A. in Warrenton.
Tickets are available
throughout the county. In
Warrenton, one may obtain
a ticket from Western Auto,
Nationwide Insurance Com
pany, and the Community
Center. In Norlina one may
obtain a ticket from Jack's
Food Mart and Powell's
Grocery.
MIAMI BEACH . . . Why
don't you ipend St. Valen
tine's Day in Miami Beach
and join vivacious Hedy
Prescott a* she frolics on this
retort's sandy shore with the
warn blue Atlantic serving
aa a backdrop?
fuel for his oar. and the bulk
of which drove a generator
which not only provided all
the energy for heat and
power in his home, but
enabled him to sell two
thirds of this electricity to a
local power plant, without
reducing the value of the
treated manure as a
fertilizer.
The article is headed
"Swiss farmer Manfred
Steiner isn't afraid of the oil
crisis at all, because he
already runs his entire farm
on COW POWER."
Unfortunately, I can not
reproduce the entire article
because it is copyrighted,
but I will give a synoposis of
the experience of this
farmer who operated a
25-cow dairy farm
In his efforts to make his
farm self-sufficient from an
energy standpoint, Steiner
already had a large manure
pile and a compost ditch,
and soon added a silo
equipped with heating coils
at its base and a second silo
in which to store the
nitrogen rich manure resi
due, which he says is
wittout odor. -»
He was able to find ji large
balloon in which he stores
the menthane, and purchase
a small generator that was
capable of converting the
gas into electric.
Manure is shoveled into a
concrete ditch which col
lected the liquid overflow.
This is minced with a
long-handled mixer and
pumped into the digestor
silo and heated to 95 percent
to trigger firmentation.
Steiner. last fall set up a
new experiment, after his
grain harvest he fed the
stalks into the digester and
discovered the straw he
produced on his farm - when
doctored with regular doses
of anaerobic bacteria (found
jn the manure) could
produce the equivalent of
3000 litters of petroleum
products (more than 750
gallons.)
Some time ago I had
learned that a large pig
farm in the middle west had
sold its manure to a
company which converted it
into methane gas and I think
it too was converted into
electricity.
I he weather being treach
erous Monday, when I
finished the above para
graph. instead of walking
home I went across to The
Carriage House for a bowl of
soup and after lunch I
continued talking with Leon
ard Kilian about methane
gas He said that he had
recently read in a farm
release about a large dairy
farm, some 300 cows, in
i ennsylvania, which had
invested a large sum of
money in equipment and
WuS Producing methane gas
which it had converted into
electricity.
The Swede about whom I
read in "Mother's Earth
News," said he had invested
around $20,000 in his project
which wouldpay for itself in
about eight years, less if oil
prices continue to rise.
The still about which I
read in the same magazine
w as supposed to cost $500
and less, if pickup material
is used, and would provide
about 7 gallons of alcohol
per hour.
While I am primarily
interested in seeing the
I nited States become free
of its dependence on foreign
countries for fuel, in the
process I would like to see
the family size farm again
above to produce its own
energy from farm resources
as was the case in my
boyhood when grain fed to
mules and horses produced
the energy, to pull plows
buggies and wagons.
Stabilization Meet
A v
Set For Henddrson
Flue-Cured Tobacco Co
operative Stabilization Cor
poration, the grower organi
zation which administers
the price support program
for flue-cured tobacco, will
hold its 22nd annual district
meeting for North Carolina
growers in District 8.
District 8 includes It
flue-cured counties in the
Middle Belt of North
Carolina, including Warren.
Marsh H. Currin of Oxford,
director from District 8, and
Fred G. Bond, general
manager, jointly announced
that the meeting will be held
at Holiday Inn in Henderson
on Wednesday, February 20,
beginning at 2:00 p. m.
The COOP's operational
report for the calendar year
will be given. Stabilization's
stocks totaled 547.5 million
pounds as of January 1,1980.
Currin noted that on
January 1, 1979, Stabiliza
tion held 599.5 million
pounds of tobacco in
inventory. He further added
that Stabilization's sales for
calendar year 1979 totaled
123.6 million pounds. This
compares to sales of 50.5
million pounds in 1978.
In addition to Stabiliza
tion's report, reports will be
given by representatives to
Tobacco Associates, Inc.;
Tobacco Growers' Informa
tion Committee; USDA's
Tobacco Division, Agricul
tural Marketing Service;
and other allied organiza
tions and agencies. Ample
time will be provided for
discussion.
A brief business session
will be held immediately
following the regular meet
ing to elect the director for
the ensuing three-year term
on Stabilization's Board to
represent District 8 grow
ers. Stabilization's Advisory
Committee members from
each of the flue-cured
tobacco producing counties
in District 8 will be selected
at this time also.
Currin added, "Flue-cur
ed growers are urged to
make every effort to attend
Stabilization's meeting in
order to gain a better
understanding of the Co
operative's operations."
Kenney Joins Clinic Staff
Dr. James E. Kenney has
joined the clinic staff of the
Beckford Avenue Medical
Clinic, Dr. James P. Green,
president of the clinic,
announced this week.
In his new position at the
clinic, Kenney will practice
in his specialty of family
medicine. Kenney joins
Green and William M.
Davis, a physician assist
ant, on the clinic staff.
It was also announced that
new clinic hours, will be
from 9 a. m. to 12 noon and 2
to 5 p. m.. Monday through
Friday (including all day
Wednesday).
Kenney is a native of
Somerville, N. J. He served
in the U. S. Army before
attending Savannah State
College in Savannah, Ga. He
attended medical school at
the University of Alabama
and completed a residency
in family practice at Kings
County-Downstate Medical
KENNEY
Center in Brooklyn, N. Y., in
July.
Kenney is married and the
father of two daughters. His
wife, Connie, is employed as
a nutritionist at the Vance
Granville Health Depart
ment.
Cold Weather Training Held
Marine Cpl. Wayne A.
Towns, son of Gilbert and
Mattie S. Boyd of Rt. 1,
Norlina, recently partici
pated in cold weather train
ing on Cape Cod.
He is a member of the 36th
Marine Amphibious Unit,
based at Camp Lejeune.
The Exercise, which in
volved 3,000 U. S. sailors
and Marines and three Navy
ships, was designed to test
clothing, equipment and :
amphibious techniques un
der adverse weather condi
tions. The exercise started
with an amphibious assault :
landing and involved infan- '
try training at Camp
Edwards, Mass. The train
ing was a prelude to a NATO «.
cold weather exercise to be
held late this year.
Towns joined the Marine
Corps in October 1976. '