THE ENTERPRISE IS READ BT OVER 3,000 MARTIN COUNT! FAMILIES TWICE EACH WEES THE ENTERPRISE THE ENTERPRISE IS READ BT OVER 3,000 MARTIN COUNT* FAMILIES TWICE EACH WEE* VOLUME LIII—NUMBER 48 Williamaton, Martin County, North Carolina, Thursday, June Z5, IV.10 ESTABLISHED 1899 Carolina Company •Asks For Another Boost In Charges Telephone Firm Says High er Rates Needed To Fi nance Expansion I'm- the Second time in 15 months, the Carolina Telephone and Telegraph Company has peti tioned the State for sizable rate increases over the big territory it t serves in Eastern North Carolina. In an application to the State Utilities Commission, the T&rboro firm asked for rate hikes big e nough to increase its gross reve nue by $900,000 a year and to cover salary and wage increases being made this year. The com pany said it already has upped the salaries and wages of its employ^ es by $115,300 since January 1. 0 Further increases amounting to around $78,000 are planned for the remainder of the year, it said. Carolina Telephone, whose ex changes serve a large portion of Eastern North Carolina, won its last rate hikes from the commis sion in April, 1949 The increase then amounted to $003,958 in gross revenue annually. The hikes in residential rates ranged from 25 cents to $1 a month, and in busi ♦ ness rates from 25 cents to $1.75. At several exchanges, rural rates were hiked 25 cents. The firm proposed no*specific rates in yesterday's application. It said it was leaving up to the commission the setting of new rates for the various exchanges and types of service. It asked a hearing at the earliest possible date. The commission did #set the time. The company said it needed the additional money to continue its big expansion program. Its earnings for last March, fig ured on an annual basis, were ap proximately four per wnt on the company’s gross investment and about five per cent on its net in vestment, said the application. “The earnings have steadily de dined since the granting of the last adjustment in rates by the commission (on April 30, 1949). "Petitioner feels that the con tinued decline in rate of return on its investment will make it difficult to raine the necessary capital to carry on its present and proposed plans to improve and expand its plant to meet the demands of the public it serves.” The additional $900,000 a year •,n gross revenue, plus the amount id the wage and salary increases ,\nd corresponding expense, "will be required for a reasonable rate of return on its present plant investment.” The firm said that further addi tions to its facilities for the re mainder of this year will run to! about $3,000,000. "Consideration of this additional investment of rates for the future.” i he company said its invest ment had increased by about $4, (180,000 since November. 1948. It now totals around $23,000,000. The improvements and expan sion program now is being finan ced by short term bank loans “which will necessitate perma nent financing in the future,” said the petition. The firm said it had increased its phones by 20 per cent, or more than 14,900, between December 1, 1948, and April 30, 1950. This gain required the installations of -10,189 phones, as 25.2nr> were re- i moved and i^p.aced during the period. Unfilled orders totaled a round 13,000 last April 30, or increase of 1000 over December 1, 1948. Sale Of Poppies Amounts to $354 Mrs. Jimmy Taylor, county chairman of the American Legion Auxiliary Poppy Sale, reported yesterday on the amount of money taken in by her co-chairman and co-chairwomen through the sale of poppies. Collections were: Mr. Phillip Keel, Robersonville chairman, $13.75: Mrs. Hassell Worsley, Oak City, $22.00; Mrs. M. L. White, Hamilton, $10.50; Mrs. Raleigh Harrington, Jamesville, $24.50 and Mrs Taylor, Wiliiamston, $283.15 Mrs Taylor expressed her sincere ! appreciation to all who helped make Wear-A-Poppy Memorial Day a sucess and stated that the above reports were not complete; that a tew donatinos were still coming in. Work On Dra inage Project Going Forward In Comity While major projects are tied up in legalities, work on a drain age program is advancing rapidly in Griffins Township, late re ports stating that approximately one and one-half miles of the Roberson swamp or mill* pond had been drained, and that the project in all probability, will be completed within the next three or four weeks. Citizens in the community, cir cumventing drainage district tar ation, put up voluntary contri butions to finance the project es timated to cost $5,000. Present plans call for about two miles of drainage work. The Hill Con struction Company is handling the project with a drag line. Commenting on the project this week, property owners there said I they were well pleased with the j work, that there had been mark jed improvement in drainage. ! Quite a few individual drain age projects have been success I fully handled in the county dur ing recent months, and other pro jects are being considered on a limited scale. During the meantime plans are still going forward for drainage projects on a district basis, and reports indicate that the impor tant work will go forward rapid ly just as soon as the value of the work is proved. Property owners arc meeting in the Robersonvillc areas there this evening at 8:00 o’clock to dis cuss plans for a Collie Swamp drainage project and others are studying the advisability of launching similar projects. | HAPPINESS WEEK v/ Manchester, England A city suburb is to hold a Happiness Week from June 17-14 in which people must smile and be happy “Wheth they like it or not.” Levenshulme, Manchester is to hold this first civic week of happiness, and the organ izers, hope that other places will follow suit and arrange nationwide weeks with smiles completely off the ration. Householders and shop keepers are being asked to fly bunting and flags to hid any grimy buildings Festivities have been ar ranged at which people will be told: “Forget your income tax and domestic problems for a week.” Veterans Make Pasture Tour Seven permanent pastures were visited by members of the James ville Veteran Farm Training Pro gram on a tour last Tuesday afternoon. The tour was conducted as a part of the training program for the veterans enrolled in the Jamesville school. Several types of pastures were visited and each showed excellent results are be ing obtained from the different mixtures seeded. The mixtures included Ladino clover and fes cue; White Dutch clover and Daliis grass, Ladino clover, Rye i grass and'fescue; White Dutch clover and Red top grass; Bermuda j grass and White Dutch clover; and j Ladino clover and Orchard grass. One important thing was noted on the tour, that regardless of the type of mixture seeded, the im portant factor in growing a good pasture is in the fertilization. In addition to the pasture tour a demonstration on irrigating pastures was conducted by the Standard Fertilizer Company. Al so as an experiment a demon stration was given on applying fertilizer through the irrigating system on trainee John D. Lilley’s pasture. The results of these dem onstrations will be checked to determine the increased grazing da.yo on this pasture. Pastures visited those f James Smithwick, Marvin Jones, Julian Hosea Fagan, Grady Davenport, John D. Lilley, McDonald Hardi son and Hugh B. and J. T. Grif fin. All are members of the veter an program- with the exception of Marvin Jones. Those making the tour other than members of the veteran pro gram and Young Farmers Club included T. B. Elliot, District Sup ervisor of Vocational Agriculture; E. Y. Floyd, Director of the Plant Food Institute of N. C. and Va; T. B Brandon and Sam Tuten of the Extension Service; H. F. Mc Knight and Davis VanNortwick of the Soil Conservation Service; and T. W. Crockett and J. H. McBrayer of the Standard Fer tilizer Company. Refrigerator Motor Burnx In Home Here -9 Firemen were called out here this morning when a refrigerator motor caught fire and smoked up the home occupied by Lillis Hands and owned by Mary Gray on South Smithwick Street. Young Nan From County Describes Crop In So. Africa Herman Cruwfunl Of Ever etts There With Five Other Caroliuians The following article appeared Monday in the News and Observer along with a picture of the six North Carolinians on the tobacco market in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. The men pictured were Herman Crawford, auctioneer, of Everetts; R. G. Ruffin, buyer for Imperial Tobacco Company, of Farmville; Graham Day, auc tioneer, Timberlake; Lloyd Mills, sales starter, of Greenville; Rus sell Bullock, auctioneer, of Vass and Eddie Edwards, auctioneer, of Greenville. Newest claimant to the title of "World’s largest Tobacco Market” is Salisbury, in faraway Rhodesia, where six Tar Heels are employ ed). That word came from one of the six, Herman Crawford of Everetts, an auctioneer who sells the tobacco with a North Carolina chant. The Salisbury market in South ern Rhodesia expects to sell 108, 000,000 pounds of tobacco before the sales season ends in October, according to Crawford, previously, the record had been claimed by the Lexington, Ky., market on the burley belt, where 107,000,000 seasons. Crawford writes that tobacco sold on two huge warehouse floors In Salisbury will include fire cured, Northern Rhodesia Virginia and Southern Rhodesian tobacco. Another record Salisbury will be shooting at this year will be one held by Wilson, in Eastern North Carolina. Wilson holds the record for sales of flue - cured Virginia type tobacco. Salisbury boasts it will eclipse the Wilson sales by ‘‘many million pounds weight.” "The farmers c ut here,” Craw ford writes, “grow more tobacco per farmer than the farmers at home. The largest tobacco farmer grows 750 acres and the smallest (Continued on page six) Destroy Plant In Flat Swamp Area Operating with ABC officers from Beaufort and Pitt Counties, ABC Officer J. H. Roebuck and Deputy Roy Peel wrecked a large illicit distillery in the Flat Swamp area last Friday afternoon. The plant was equipped with a 300-gallon capacity submarine type still. The officers wrecked nineteen 50-gallon fermenters and three large coolers, and confiscat ed seven gallons of white liquor, ten gallons of fuel oil and oil burners. Thurman Roberson, of Rober sonville, was taken into custody and was booked for trial at the next term of Pitt County Superior Court. Bond was arranged in the sum of $300. Last Monday afternoon, Offic ers Roebuck and Peel wrecked a small plant in Griffins Township! not far from the Foreman Fire1 Tower. A 25-gallon copper kettle had just been moved to a new lo cation and was being set up for operation. Hundreds Attend Concert Here By Green Wave Band High S hoot Miisiriuihx Tra vel-to Charlotte Sunday For Slate Test ! Close to a thousand friends and supporters left the Williamston ball park last night proud of the Williamston High School Green Wave Band which had just com pleted the big step in their prep arations for representing Wil liamston at the State Lions Con vention in Charlotte on Monday afternoon, June 19. It was a big night for the band which gave an excellent account of itself and it was also a big one for the Williamston Lions’ club which had just topped its goal of $1,000 to defray the band's ex penses to the Queen City., The Lions had over $700 as a direct re sult of the concert ticket sales and with the $150 the club had set aside for, the project and $150 set aside by the town the goal was passed with a margin. Not all the tickets were sold in Williamston, as there were spec tators from as far as 65 miles, in cluding Washington and other nearby towns. The band started its outdoor concert, the first it has ever held on such a scale, with a rousing march, ' Men Of Ohio", by Kill more. Then came an excellent rendition of that well known ov erture by Grundman, "Two Moods.” A little pop tune thrown in as a relief was next in line, "I’ll Dance at Your Wedding." Dedicated to the recently form ed Williamston unit of the Nation al Guard, the next number was well received. It was, "There’s Something About a Soldier," ar ranged by Yoder. Following a light number, "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree," arranged by Teague, the band presented one of its favorite marches, "The Billboard", by Klohr. Then came “Tea for Two” and a waltz, "Memories”. The re gular concert program closed with the ever popular number, "Red Rhythm Valley," as arranged by Hill. Because they still had a lot of j playing and marching to do in I the drill and maneuver program, Director Jack Butler restricted l encores to one number, "Good night Medley.” Following the concert, a fifteen | minute break was taken to get the I band ready for dress parade and i I inspection by two sergeants and | la civilian who judged the music ! during the drills. | The band was given a superior i rating by its critics, only one or ! two very small defects being not i od foi correction in later practice sessions before the Charlotte trip. The cadence, except for one brief instant, was reported as virtually perfect. Working and worrying and diiving these past two weeks, Piolessor Butler declared after the show that it was worth it, and said, “You can quote me: ’They are a grand bunch of kids’.” The band marched down the field, countermarched, turned left and came across just on the grass back of second base and turned right to come up the first base fine, stopping still at the very in stant they ceased playing. They leceived warm applause from the stands. Then they turned and marched at an angle across the field, the last part of this being a silent march during which the crowd was so still the footsteps of the marchers was plainly audible and in perfect time. Coming back (Continued on page eight) Place Bass In Gardner's Creek Cecil Bullock and Oscar Taylor, employees of the game and fish division of the North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development, placed 10,000 large mouth bass in Gartjner’s Creek between Williamston and James ville last Friday, The young fish were secured from a hatchery neai1 Fayette ville and according to Bullock he fish averaged about two inches in length. Replica Of Old Liberty Bell To Be Here June 24 11**11 Bciiur llroiiifhl Here In Inlt'rcsl Of liult'iH'iHl* tMiof Saving Honils An exact duplicate of the famous old Liberty Bell in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, said to have the same tone as the original bell will be displayed in Williamston June 24 beween the hours of 3:00 and 5:00 p. m„ it was announced today. " Messrs. D. V. Clayton and 11 A. Bowen, co-chairman of the Inde pendence Savings Bond Drive in this area, explained that the bell is being brought to this county in connection with the current bond drive. They added, however, that no bond selling will be ad vanced during the visit of the bell. “We are using the bell merely to point out the importance of investments in savings bonds,” the chairman explained. The Savings Bond Division of the United States Treasury De partment is conducting a national stimulation bond drive to increase public participation in the bond program and to point out the op portunity of investing for the futu re. When Treasury Secretary John W Snyder announced that the Independence Savings Bond Drive would be symbolized by the Lib- [ ci ty Bell, six of the nation's cop- j per producers volunteered to’ manufacture and donate fifty- two replicas of the old bell to high ligt the drive ending July 4. At the conclusion of the drive, the bell now touring this State will be given to North Carolina, it was explained. Bellmasters throughout the country have examined the dupli cates and assert that because of this exact similarity of structure to the original bell, the sound is the same as that heard in Phila delphia in 1776. All citizens are urged to see the bell and hear the message “Save for your Independence” when the t bell visits Williamston on Satur- I day, June 24. Commencement on Friday Tor UVBS The Union Vacation Bible School will hold its fourteenth commencement on Friday evening at 8:00 o’clock in the sanctuary of the Memorial Baptist Church. Well attended by youngsters between the ages ol 4 and 12 the school this year has been a suc cessful one and the leaders are urging the public to attend the ex ercises and see how m"