Newspapers / The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.) / Feb. 22, 1968, edition 1 / Page 2
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' Oie - journal PRESS ASSOCIATION NATIONAL NIWSMMR Acgrg, imH!.T'!a.7rnn Published Every Thursday at Raeford, N. C. 119 W. El wood Avenue Subscription Rates In Advance Per Year - $4.00 6 Months - $2.25 3 Months $1.25 PAUL DICKSON Publisher SAM C. MORRIS General Manager JIM TAYLOR Editor MRS. LUCY GRAY PEEBLES Reporter MRS. PAUL DICKSON Society Editor Second-Class Postage Paid it Haeford, N, C. Your ward-Wlnnlng Community Newspaper "Don't Be Kaive-It Was Just That Sign Thut Was Temporary" THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 196 RILED UNCONSTITUTIONAL Speaker Ban Is Banned A three-judge federal panel Monday laid to rest an absurd law which for the better part of two years kept the state of North Carolina in a turmoil. It was the highly controversial Speaker Ban Law, which In its original form barred known communists and persons who had pleaded the fifth amendment in loyalty ques tions from speaking on state-owned college and university campuses. The law was passed in the dying moments of the 1963 General As sembly, with a "questionable call" by T. Clarence Stone, then presi dent of the Senate, enabling the bill to avert protests from the floor. Stone simply gaveled down the opposition, according to many North Carolinians who were in the Senate chamber that day. The bill was then delivered to the House, where within a few min utes it was passed and the solons went home, obviously not realizing what they had done. Almost immediately, there came a roar of anger from the boon docks, and almost every editor in the state dipped his pen and attacked with purple phrases the Legislature ignoble decision. In the rourse of time, most legis lators discovered the frailty of the law, and when they convened in special session two years later the law was amended to provide that any person speaking on a state-owned college or university campus would do so at the pleasure of the administrators of the school concerned. That, in effect, negated the law, because that policy already was established when the Speaker Ban Law came along. Nonetheless, academic freedom was vindicated and almost everybody wrote off the law as being one of those ob scure statutes likely to be come upon a generation hence and not taken seriously at all. A group of students at the Uni versity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had filed a suit in March, 1966, challenging the law's con stitutionality, and after the law was amended, they kept pushing the issue until the three-man court finally got around to ruling on it. In a word, the three Judges de clared the law was unconstitution al because of its "vagueness," meaning that the term "known communist" and "member' of the communist party were not suf ficiently clear to Identify potential speakers to whom the law applied. The three judges did not define the laws faults beyond that, no further definition being necessary, since they already had uncovered a flaw which made the law un constitutional, and if there were a dozen other reasons for declar ing it so, it would be no more unconstitutional than for the divulged fault should all 12 of the weaknesses be brought to light. It is significant that at least two other state legislatures con sidered similar laws after the North Carolina controversy gaines national attention (Virginia and Alabama), but the move was sound ly defeated on both occasions. Members of the special ses sion of 1965 deserved commenda tion, to be sure, for watering down the law until it could be made harmless (or used unreason ably, if an individual administrator saw fit). We said then, and know now, that they didn't go far enough. That error was corrected this week, taking the dunce cap off in stitutions which at one time were being made the laughing stock of the nation. Bladen Seeks Housing A Fayetteville Observer edi torial earlier this week commend ed officials of Bladen County for establishing a housing authority and taking other first steps topro vide low-rent housing for impov erished or underprivileged families. "Bladen On The Move," the editorial's headline pro claimed, and the writer singled out three municipalities In that county as showing "proper con cern for the well-being of people" and as enhancing "the prospects of a county and area for economic and social development, thus build ing a better future for generations to come.'' Such noble prospects undoubted ly are inherent in low-rent hous ing programs, but in plainer Eng lish, low-rent housing units built by local housing authorities and backed by the federal government Immediately take people out of substandard housing and put them into clean, comfortable, adequate quarters, many for the first time in their live.?. We have lieen disappointed that our own Raeford Board of Town Commissioners had kept pigeon holed for 12 months a petition signed by more than 100 Raeford property owners in which the board was asked to establish a housing authority, with an eye toward build ing 100 low-rent units here. At the time the petition was presented and the whole proposition ex plained, the board established a committee of disinterested citi zens to survey residential dis tricts of Raeford to determine how great a need exists here for such housing. When the com mittee's work was finished, there then was to have been a public meeting to air the proposition. All this was to have cost the town or the county nothing. The town board's only responsibility in the matter would have been in setting up the housing authority. It would neither build the units nor administrate the program, and whatever bonds Issued for build ing the units could not be paid off, the federal government would have picked up the tab. We can only look toward Bladen County and wish E lizabethtown, Bladenboro and Clarkton well, knowing all the while, that the same thing could have happened here. A match would not burn in a space ship traveling beyond the pull of earth's gravity. Instead of rising, the hot gases would accumulate in a sphere that would put out the flame. Almost half of Alaska's 250,000 people live near Anchorage, the State's largest city, the National Geographic says. f&Sffi? JL Iff ill fti torn fe 1 1 i TMWMIUMIIIW immmmsmMmtm-jiy jim Taylor1 These Are ! B'ar Facts -1 I &-::::::-:xw Hoke County had this week what we call a "bear tale" back home. The local hoax probably was not made for the same reason, thouoh, for back In the hills, whenever a "b'ar" is reported running wild in a neighborhood, whipping people's dogs and scaring the young'uns half to death, it is a sure si gn some body is making, or getting ready to make, a run of moonshine. Don't believe that was the case in Hoke, because officers here cut up only four stills all la.- t year, and to date this year, only one "stumphole" operation has been discovered. Just the same, word got a round town that a colored man had plowed up fruit jars con taining $3G,000inU.S.currency. I called the owner of the land and he said there was nothing to the tale, and not to put it in the paper. Since I am not identifying him, I assume it will be all right to mention the matter, because it already is general knowledge. The first tip came to The News-Journal first of the week when a lady who works nearby came over bubbling over with the news. tried to check out the story that afternoon, but wasn't able to make contact with anyone who could either confirm or deny the story. Next day, the same woman was back again. Said she's talked Xj girl who "lives out that way,'' and the girl said the story was absolutely true. Finally, I talked on the tele phone with the landowner and he said the colored fellow started the story for the fun of it among some of his cronies. Thus, my treasure story for 1968 was shot to heck and gone. Several years ago, I worked for the States ville newspaper, and in the nearby Brushy Mount ains, i "b'ar" tale got out one fall. The critter was reported seen one place one night, a mile awayfe next, and in between, there'd be signs of a scuffle, as if the bear had fended off dogs. Some people swore they heard the dogs yelping late in the night. Ever notice how all those animal sounds in the night are described as sounding ' like a baby crying?" I have. Every thing from a purple panther to a screech owl sounds like I baby bawling, or so report people who are afraid of ha'nts. The Brushy Mountain bear rampaged for the better part of two weeks. I went out to the hills and examined the tracks. I ain't no Frank Buck, but I know a b'ar spoor when I see one, and the signs this critter left behind had all the makings of a genuine bruin, and surely it was big'un. In the end, the hoax turned out to be exactly what I should have known, in the first place, it would be. Some fellows mashed in out in the hills. One of them rigged up a pair of stilts (known in the hill country as "tomwalkers") and traipsed hither and yon. scar ing all but the foolish and the brave into staying inside their houses at night. Speaking of bears, I saw the television program, "Gentle Ben," t'other night for the first time in quite a spell. It made me sick to my stomach. Tommy, I think the kid's name is, was playing baseball with the other swamp angels and he had racked up six straight wins, according to the dialogue. Trouble was, he was pulling the wool over opposing batters and the umpire at cru cial points of the late innings by giving 'em the old whatchamacallit That It, the kid would pretend to be looking up at an airplane, and when the batter let his eyes drift sky ward, the kid would burn one in and the ump would cry, "Stceerrrlkke THREE," Well, the kid didn't have to be an Einstein to be smarter than the ump, because such a delivery would be a balk, un less they've changed the rules of Abner Doubleday's little brainchild. Dumbest fellow of the whole smear,however, was the script writer, who managed to make the kid look terrible - yet able to wrap his pa and the umpire around his little finger. And when his father, played by Chester Good of Cunsmoke fame, berated the kid, the young'un practically told his pa where to go peddle his pea nuts. Then along comes Bob Gib son, the St. Louis Cardinal pitcher who practically won the World Series singlehanded last fall, and he straightened the whole thing out. First of all, he warmed up the kid, playing catch with him while Gentle Ben (who was the smartest thing in the episode, including the kid) lay close by. The writer might succeed in getting me to believe Gibson could reform the little brat, but a colored fellow (or a white one. for that matter), non chalantly play catch with a real live neck? Never. I - -L- Ml philosopher Claims Each Year Produces More Crises Than Last imjmM ft Dear editar: Although It's gotten to i point where a man opens his news paper these days wondering, "Well, what new place in the world did trouble break out In last night," I screwed up my courage and opened a copy of paper a magazine salesman dropped out here while getting in his car on Jump ahead of my dog. Understand, I've got nothing against magazine sales men. The difficulty was between him and my dog, and I don't take responsibility for the atti tudes of my dog, any more than Frichmen are responsible for what DeGaulle says. After checking the latest re ports on Vietnam, Hanoi, Greece. Egypt. Israel, North Korea. England and New Hamp shire. I noticed a smaller Item which reported that the Secre tary of the United Nations, U. Thant. said "1967 produced more crises than any other year in history." What the United Nations ought to do Is buy Mr. Thant a new adding machine. Take any year, It doesn't mat ter which one, and if you check up on it closely enough you'll find it produced more crises than any other year, provided you check on it while It's fresh In your mind. This is Just the second month, but 1968 already has produced more crises than 1967, with 10 more months to go and 1969 still to come. It's gotten so a country that can't produce at least one cri sis week Just Isn't trying. DeGaulle used to do better than that, but latelyhe's been crowd ed out He doesn't know that if you can't produce a brand new one now and then, using the old ones over and over gets tire some. You get to feeling sorry for France when some little country like Vietnam, no big ger than the state of Florida, can beat her off the front page weeks on end. In the crisis race, Vietnam, wins as consis tently as the Green Bay Pack ers. I'll tell you. If man doesn't learn to ration his crises string them out Instead of hav ing one on top of anotherno body Is going to take them seriously, which would be a crisis of a different tort. Yours faithfully, J.A. CLIFF BLUE . . People & Issues - TENSE WEEKl'his will be a tense week up until filing deadline on Friday, February 23, at noon lor district and state candidates who are un opposed at tills time. Things are looking rosy as of this writing on Saturday, February 17, for Pat Taylor Jr. to wrap up the Democratic noniina'iori ' (or lieutenant gov ernor without opposition; for Richardson Prcyer to receive the Sixth District Democratic nomination for Congress un opposed, and for Voit Gilinoro to receive the Eighth District Democratic nomination for Con gress unopposed, Hut It will be a right tense time for the three right up to the time the clock ticks off the filing deaJ line on Friday. It's not often that the Demo cratic nomination for a vacant Congressional seat is picked up without a fight. In fact, we do not remember a time when the nominee for a vacant seat has won without a fight. And the same tiling goes for lieu tenant governor. Other oflicials standing for nomination and election who also will breathe a little easier after the filing deadline are members of the new State Court of Appeals, with all mem bers seeking election to a full term. Thus far, only Chief Judge Raymond B. Mallard has op position. He is being opposed by Kidd Brewer of Raleigh, who four years ago sought the Dem ocratic nomination for governor but received only 8,026 votes. In 1956, he received 56,227 votes for lieutenant governor. HOl'SE & SENATEln con tests for the State House and Senate, chances are that there will not be as many confronta tions this year as in previous years due to the fact that In most instances the House dis tricts and the Senate districts are much larger than before redistricting and the disregard for rotation agreements, fake the 19th Senatorial District, for instance. In these five counties -- Davidson, Mont ;omery, Moore, Richmond and Scotland heretofore, Willi the rotation agreement In effect, a candidate had to run for the nomination in only one county. Now, he must run In five counties -- an area about half the si -e of a con gressional district This causes some who would not mind runn ing in one county to throw up their hands and rehise to lake on a five-count)' campaign. IVWDEH ITFF -- Some weeks ago, Jack stickley sug gested that the race with Jim Gardner would be a nice "pow-der-pnff" type campaign. From the looks of the claim last week bv fie Gardner people that they haJ siphoned out of the Stickley lake some eleven county man agers certainly knocks the "powder-puff" idea into a cocked hat. Hie Stickley-Gard-ner race will probably be a bit ner race will probably be as bitter as tiie Rrouihton-Scott-Hawkins race. Rroughton's needling of Scott on the "open housing" issue last week In dicates that It will not be long before the sap will start rising in the Democratic contest I'EHUY SAM" CUD While Terry Sai.forJ says he Is not interested in a position with the I '.U administration in Washing ton, we seriously doubt that he would turn down a bid to become a member of the cabinet should !:e be oflered the job as secre tary of health, education and welfare. REGIS I'RA HON To our way of thinking, tie laws should be changed to enable a person to switch parties easier to run for public office when the field looks greenier on the other side ol the road. We feel that when a person wants to join another party that he shouldn't be held up. Open the gate and let 'em go, and pretty quick they will be going and coming. Rl'MOR At the Cumberland County Democratic fund raising breakfast held last Saturday morning, State Democratic Chairman Tim Valentine said "rumor is the weapon of the weak." In politics and contests for public oflice, little things: can be magnified and whispered all out of proportion. We have had "whispering" campaigns In the past and we will have them in the future. "Whispering" campaigns can sometimes ex plode in the face of the people doing the whispering, as well as hurt the Intended victim. But Tin; was 100 per rent cor rect when he said "rumor Is the weapon of the weak." MUSING A political wag was heard to say recently that it was sometimes as hard to tell ' who Is o'i one's side In the political contests as who among the South Vietnamese are true 'riends of the American troops. I SENATOR cam mum i gktmm bit v ill SAYS Si WASHINGTON The Post Of fice Department and the Pub lic Health Service are ready to launch a war of Innuendo against smoking. Mail trucks are scheduled to carry posters displaying the statement: "100,000 Doctors Have Quit Smoking (Maybe They Know something You Don't)" Obviously, the poster seeks to say that statistics reveal that your doctor has found out some thing you should know. What you are not told Is that the allegation Is based on data so defective and Inconclusive that If the statement were made by anyone except an agency of the government, It would be justly designated as false pretense. Moreover, If this statment were made by a business firm in an advertisement, It would be pro hibited by the Federal Trade Commission as plainly false and misleading. How did the government come up with such a statement? For one thing, the Public Health Ser vice chooses to Ignore the fact that reputable doctors are not In agreement about the health consequences of smoking. How about the "100,000 doctors" then? At a cost of more than $140, 000, the Public Health Service had a poll taken by the National Opinion Research Center. Ques tionnaires went out to 5,000 doctors out of the 242, 569 prac ticing physicians in this coun try. Only 1,867 doctors re plied. The non - response rate was so high that the survey should have been abandoned at that point. When It was all over, exactly 12s doctors said they had stopped smoking. But note this. Any doctor who an swered that he had smoked and had stopped was put down as doctor who had "quit amok Ing". "When" and "why" the doctor "quit smoking" art still questions to bt answered. The poll leaves that up in the air. Thereafter, on the basts of the finding that 128 doctors had "quit smoking" the statisticians took over and said that this In dicated that 81,018or more dor tors had "quit smoking" for medical reasons. Then to raise uie figure to the ma?lc "100,- 000 doctors," It was assumet that retired and non-practicing doctors had given up smoking at the same rate as practicing physicians, and that resident doctors and Interns were "giv ing up" smoking at the same rate that graduating students did some years ago. One wonders by this time what the poll and the poster were all about. Perhaps it was to show how the Public Health Service can get carried away in its effort to brainwash the people. Worse still, it indicates how the government can use propaganda to achieve whatever policy a deems Important at the moment. The comment of the New York Daily News Is appropriate: "The government could save itself a barrel of grief by simply dropp ing this plan right now." Smokers, non-smokers, and taxpayers will likely agree to that extent. Big Brewer The world's largest beer fer menting vessel, In Dublin, Ire land, has a capacity of 8.106 bar rels of beer. To protect the puri ty of the brew it is constructed entirely of nickel stainless steel. All-Climate Power Vented rechargeable nickel cadmium batterieacan be charged nd operated effectively at tem peratures ranging from 65'F be low lero to those near the boiling point of Mining Research The world's largest and most modem laboratory devoted to re search on proceuing of nickel ores is operated by International Nickel at Sheridan Park, near Toronto, Ontario. Mine Potential The nickel mines operated by International Nickel in North ern Canada have proven ore re serves that contain some 10 mil lion tons of nickel and copper.
The News-Journal (Raeford, N.C.)
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Feb. 22, 1968, edition 1
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