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Stcond-CUsi Posttft Paid it Hatford. N, C,
Your ward-Wlnnlng Community Newspaper
THURSDAY, JULY 25, 18
Who Gets How Much?
The Great Federal 'Giveway'
The "federal giveaway" is much
cussed and discussed in modern
America, and while the theory sticks in
the craw of every workingman (a term
synonymous with"taxpayer"), the
practice in recent years has been guite
beneficial to some areas, particularly the
South and other sections with large
segments of population in the
low-income category.
In Raeford and Hoke County, the
federal supplement to local tax funds is
far greater than the tax funds.
Correctly, it could be said that local
taxes are levied to supplement federal
participation in local affairs.
Considering it from a purely
monetary standpoint, federal taxes are a
good investment for the people of Hoke
County, because the federal government
each year returns more to the county in
funds and services than the county's
people pay in federal taxes.
We don't know what the ratio is -for
we have no exact accounting of
federal assistance to Hoke County or
the amount of federal taxes paid by our
citizens. It probably would be safe to
say that we get back S2 for every SI
paid to Uncle Sam.
That is not true in many instances.
Residents of New York, for example,
are said to pay in $27 for every $1 in
federal benefits received by that state.
If we were called upon to duplicate
the services and benefits now provided
in Hoke County by the federal
government, we could not do it. Our
resources already are heavily taxed, and
our capacity to borrow is almost
exceeded in local government. Our local
tax rates, while low in comparison with
many sections of the country, are about
all our governing bodies feel we can
afford.
Actually, local taxes on real and
personal property provide only about
half the amount of the annual county
budget here. The assessed valuation of
all such property in the county for tax
purposes (65 per cent of the current
valuation) is some S41 million, which at
the current tax rate of SI. 38 per SI 00
valuation would yield some $500,000.
While that tax money (ad valorem) is
the largest source of local revenue, other
sources - local, state and federal -supply
the remaining cash for the
slightly more than $1 million budgeted
in Hoke County.
Schools are a big item, and without
state and federal assistance, our schools
could not operate. Teacher salaries, for
instance, are paid by the state. Over the
years, the county has received several
million dollars in state school bond
money. The federal government also
pours an estimated $750,000 into
educational programs and services of
one sort of another each year. The item
of state and federal aid to our schools
alone is much larger than all local taxes
combined.
Just this week, the town of Raeford
was granted $338,250 in federal funds
to help expand and improve its sewage
treatment facilities. That one item was
considerably more than half as much as
county taxpayers will contribute to
operation of the county government
this year.
Look at the many other federal
benefits and services derived by the
people of Hoke County.
Social security benefits probably
amount to more than SI million a year.
Hoke farmers receive more than
SI 00,000 a year in various conservation
and production program benefits. Public
welfare assistance, paid mostly by the
state and federal governments, accounts
for another estimated SI 00,000 in
federal contributions.
The anti-poverty program a
newcomer to the list of "giveaways"
provides goodness knows how much
money to the county. The primary
anti-poverty organization Sandhills
Community Action Program receives
the federal money for a four-county
area of Hoke, Moore, Montgomery and
Lee counties, with at least an estimated
SI 00,000 going to Hoke.
Other federalally financed projects
like the Southeast Regional
Development Commission brings
hundreds of thousands of dollars in
benefits shared by Hoke. Only this
month, another SI. 3 million was
appropriated for use in Hoke and three
other counties to wage war on the
emigration problem.
We cannot measure how much we get
in road funds (for federal highways), or
how much it costs to provide postal
service, veterans benefits, agricultural
offices and programs, civil defense,
unemployment programs, courts, or
other direct federal benefits. Certainly
they would add up to more than a
million dollars a year.
L. Starr McMillan
This community lost a good friend
recently when L. Starr McMillan died at
age 77.
The town has grown considerably and
changed in many ways during recent
years, so a great many newcomers are
not aware of his long years of service as
town employe. Too. he had been
retired several years at the time of his
death, and it is likely that a great many
natives had ceased to ponder his
achievements, although certainly they
had not forgotten them.
For more than 40 years, he served as
superintendent of the water and sewer
department of the town. During those
years, he was not weighted down with
the ponderous problems which beset his
successors (the overloading of facilities
requiring more than $2 million in
expansion and improvement of the
system). He probably wouldn't have
known the difference between B.O.D.
and L.S.D. and moreover, he
wouldn't have cared a whit. Not that he
couldn't h.we adjusted to the
pushbutton method of doing things. He
was an intelligent man, not given to
long-winded conversation, but he also
was a man who didn't bother to read
about how the book said solve a
problem when the obvious solution
seemed to him to require elbow-grease
and muscle power. It was said, too, that
he was a walking encyclopedia of the
town's water system-because he had
installed all the water and sewer lines
and no maps of the system existed.
After his retirement, he lived quietly
on North Main Street and became no
more conspicious as an elder citizen
than he had been as a public servant. He
occupied his time with certain business
interests, primarily the farmland he
owned at the eastern limits of Raeford.
He enjoyed riding about the town and
county, and he dreaded the time-his
friends declare-when his failing eyesight
would no longer permit him to operate
his car.
He was proud when the town board
paid tribute to him by naming a street
in his honor-and wasn't upset when the
newspaper got his initials wrong in
reporting the incident. He was not a
man who angered easily or held a
grudge.
He was. in physical stature, a
diminutive man, but in many respects,
he stood ten feet tall. He valued nothing
above friendship, and the town and
county are filled with people who were
proud to call him friend.
mmmmmm. jm Taylor"
This Family
Is Together
For a long time, I have
envied the Bill Howell family,
more or less.
Not that I begrudge their
health, happiness and general
good fortune. They operate
more like families used to, and
this day and time, that sort of
togetherness is a rare thing.
Bill Howell, as most of you
know, is i local druggist. His
wife, Sarah, runs the household
and pinch hits at the drug store
in the bookkeeping end of the
business. They have five
children four of whom are
still at home, counting
Winborne, who is student at
Queens College and home for
the summer.
Back in June, the Howells
left Raeford for a
transcontinental trip to
California. The group included
Mr. and Mrs. Howell,
Winborne. Tom, Ann, and
David. Bill HoweU Jr., the
married member of the clan,
was occupied with duties at the
University of South Carolina,
where he is in graduate school
on a teaching fellowship.
To take off for California is
nothing out of the ordinary (if
you have the time and money
for such a trip). In the Howells'
case, the trip was somewhat
novel in that they hitched a
camper to their automobile,
loaded the camper with
provisions, and set out to see as
much of the country as
possible.
John Steinbeck, the Nobel
Prize winning author, did
practically the same thing
several years ago. Steinbeck
designed a camper to be built
on a pickup truck frame,
fathered up his poodle, Charlie,
and toured the country,
spending each night at
camping ground. At the end of
the journey, he wrote a book,
"Travels With Charlie," which
became a best seller.
Nobody in the Howell clan
was thinking of writing a book,
but they managed the trip
much like Steinbeck did. In
almost a month away from
Raeford, they didn't spend a
single night in a motel. And
they ate "out" only twice.
Winborne served as navigator
and her father did most of the
driving. They crossed the
southern part of the nation,
going past Biloxi, Miss., and
through Oklahoma, Texas,
New Mexico and Arizona to
the Los Angeles area.
To say "Los Angeles"
doesn't describe that Southern
California metropolis, which is
listed in the reference books as
a city of some two million
people. That's the population
of the urban area within the
confines of the Los Angeles
city limits.
Actually, Los Angeles starts
in the east at San Bernardino,
or just west thereof, and it's
exactly SO miles to the eastern
city limits of L. A. In between,
there is a solid residential and
business development, so
you're actually in the "city"
from the time you reach
Cucamonga.
North to south, "Los
Angeles and Vicinity" extend
from San Fernando in the
north to Newport Beach in the
south. The distance between
these two points is some 6$
miles, and it's solid "cit"
from one to the other.
1 had halfway expected to
read in the papers while the
Howells were gone that David
has been rescued out of the
Grand Canyon or off the side
of Medicine Row, or
somewhere. He's the youngest
of the clan and is a
tree-climbing, pony riding,
roughhousc, all-boy type.
Oddly, he was not at all
rambunctious on the trip, the
Howells said. Maybe the thrill
of seeing so many places one
usually only reads about like
the Grand Canyon,
Yellowstone Park, Carlsbad
Caverns, etc. had the same
effect on him it would have
had on me at his age.
On the way home, the
Howells drove up the
California coast to San
Francisco, where they had one
of their two meals "out." They
ate at the famous Fisherman's
Wharf and Mrs. Howell
promptly became ill. The
seafood didn't set well with
her.
After San Francisco, they
hit Reno and drove across
Nevada to northwestern
Wyoming to Yellowstone
National Park. That's the
beginning of beautiful country,
in my book, and I'm very fond
of that part of Wyoming,
Montana, Northern Idaho and
Washington.
Next, the Howells set sail for
Tennessee, where they wanted
to spend a few days in
Tennessee Walking Horse
country, since they have and
show one of that famous breed
of horses.
Like most folks, they didn't
like the Great Plains. Frankly,
there's nothing that interests
me between the Mississippi
River and the Rocky
Mountains, and the quicker
that 1 ,000 miles is traveled, the
better.
In Tennessee, they stopped
at an apparently
little-publicized state park near
Continued on Classified Page
Puppy
Creek
Philosopher
Dear editar:
I have been keeping tab on it
in the la:, few months' run of
newspapers turning up out here
on this Puppy Creek farm and
to the best of my reckoning
the only group in this country
which hasn't had a strike or a
threat of a strike it the
kindergarten pupils, and they
may walk out tomorrow.
You name it and they've
truck: telephone workers,
steel workers, Broadway
actors, television announcers,
college students, convicts,
airline pilots, school teachers,
Olympic runners, printers
(Detroit hasn't had a daily
newspaper in 8 months),
chorus girls, railroad workers. .
there are a lot more but I need
the paper I had them written
down on to clean the dip stick
when I wu checking the oil in
my tractor and can t read the
rest. It was two quarts low.
Had it been empty, I could
have finished the list.
However, I guess the strike
that topped them all was the
one by the professional
football players.
This strike disturbed a lot of
people, who claim the game
never will be the same.
"When they're in the
huddle," one man asked me,
"how will wt know whether
they're calling a play or a
strike?"
I can't tell him, I have no
answer to the problem, and
when a man has no answer to a
problem ht appoints a
committee. This country his so
many committees out now
studying problems we may
have to appoint another
committee to see what they're
hung on.
What I'm working on now is
finding something I can strike
against, but the field Is limited.
I've tried striking against work
but every time I do the only
result I can see is that the work
just piles up.
I nave enlarged my thinking
and am now working on a plan
where the rest of us can strike
gainst strikes, but I haven't
worked out the details. Will
give it tome more thought. If
any of you News-Journal
readers have any ideas, write
me at once.
Yours faithfully,
J.A.
CLIFF BLUE . . . IV-HftL
! 1 , I H
People & Issues
r a
m
NUMBER TWO SPOTS
As the national Democratic
and Republican conventions
approaches, the number one
question is not who will be the
nominees for president, but
who will be given the nod for
vice president by Humphrey
and Nixon.
We suspect that Humphrey
will give the nod to Edward
Kennedy to become his
running mate, but there is still
considerable uncertainty as to
who Nixon will pick for the
number two spot on the
Republican ticket.
With politics becoming more
violent, we doubt that anyone
asked by either Humphrey or
Nixon will turn the nomination
for vice president down.
We recall that back in 1960
when John F. Kennedy and
Lyndon B. Johnson were
seeking the Democratic
nomination for president that
Johnson said he preferred to
remain in the Senate where he
was majority leader to being
vice president, but when the
invitation was given by JFK to
become his running mate it
didn't take him lung to say
"yes." And the world knows
that he reached the white
house by the VP door.
It has never been regarded as
good politics to seek the vice
presidential nomination but to
pick someone who had
considerable support for
president in an attempt to
bring his followers to support
the ticket. In 1960 Nixon
tapped former Senator Henry
Cabot Lodge for his running
mate. Lodge had served in the
U.S. Senate but had been
defeated by John F. Kennedy.
TOBACCO HELP
Tobacco farmers report that it
is very hard to get help to
harvest the golden weed and
some have been inquiring as to
the possibility of getting relief
through "A grade" prisoners
who might be available through
the work release procedure.
CLEAR ON ISSUES It
seems like the candidates
farthest behind are far more
willing to speak out frankly on
the issues than are the
candidates near the front.
Good examples are Dr.
Reginald Hawkins while
running for the Democratic
nomination for governor this
spring; George W. Wallace and
Senator Eugene McCarthy and
Nelson Rockefeller.
One thing is quite clear:
None of the candidates for
president are getting more
"hawkish" in their attitudes
toward Vietnam, but are
veering toward the dovish line.
ATTENTION There was a
time when presidential
candidates seldom visited the
South, but that time is now
history, with the South
becoming as much a two-party
section as any part of the
nation.
Many people today are
rating North Carolina as a
toss-up state insofar as the
presidential election is
concerned.
There is probably more
activity for George Wallace in
the state today than for any
other presidential candidate.
Wallace will probably
command a greater percentage
of the popular and electoral
vote than any third party
candidate since Theodore
Roosevelt bolted the
Republican party and ran as a
Progressive Party candidate in
1912, which resulted in the
election of Woodrow Wilson.
BELK LIBRARY We were
delighted to note that East
Carolina University has
established the Henry Belk
Journalism Library with the
personal collection of Jonathan
Daniels as the beginning
nucleus.
The new library, according
to ECU President Leo W.
Jenkins, will become an
important cornerstone of the
journalism program East
Carolina is seeking to develop.
Belk is the senior member of
the ECU Board of Trustees,
editor of the Goldsburo
News-Argus, and a champion
of progress for Eastern North
Carolina and the entire state.
The establishment of the
Henry Belk Journalism Library
is a splendid tribute to a great
Tarheel citizen with vision and
foresight.
LITTLE DIFFERENCE
From the best we can
determine from studying their
records there will be but little
change in the government in
Washington if Humphrey or
Rockefeller is elected
president.
You will know there is a
different man in the white
house if Nixon is elected and
everybody will realize well that
a change has been made if
George Wallace should win.
GUN LAVS We do not
know what the Gallup and
Harris polls would say, but we
doubt that there is the public
support for stricter gun control
laws that you might imagine.
Greatest support has probably
come from newspaper
editorials and commentators.
Grass roots opposition to new
gun laws by huntsmen and
sportsmen have had its effect
on Washington legislators.
I SENATOR
SAM ERVIN
SAYS C$
WASHINGTON With the
national conventions set for
August S and August 25,
Congress is talking of winding
up its affairs next week. The
prospects for adjournment that
soon are not particularly
bright.
There are a multitude of
reasons for this. We are
engaged in the longest war in
our history with peace
negotiations at a standstill
barring some unforseen break.
Traditionally, Congress has
stayed in session longer in war
years, because of the many
problems inherent in such
events. Moreover, we are living
in an age of great turmoil and
crisis, and this in itself makes
the legislative process more
difficult and brings about more
legislation. Lawmaking has
become much more
complicated, too, when many
problems that once were solved
at the county seat or the state
capitol are shifted to
Washington. Consider the
number of bills that have been
dropped in the legislative
hopper since the 90th Congress
began some eighteen months
ago. As of mid-July, members
of the Senate and House had
introduced more than' 24,000
bills in that period of time.
A major problem of this
session has been a problem that
every citizen understands -money.
Early in this session it
became apparent when the
President submitted the Budget
and it projected a huge deficit
if taxes were not increased and
pending reduced that wt had
to set out financial house in
order. While 1 am not at all
convinced that we have solved
our fiscal problems, tha
purpose of the Tax Adjustment
Act of 1968 was the prevent a
financial crisis. That Act
imposed a $6 billion reduction
in federal spending requests
with a ceiling of S180 billion
under specified conditions.
How well Congress will succeed
in this undertaking is yet to be
determined by the
appropriation bills it is
considering.
There are 14 money bills to
fund federal departments and
agencies, and the SI 80 billion
budget ceiling set by Congress
says in essence that Congress or
the president must limit
spending to the specified level.
Part of the problem in getting
Congressional action on the
remaining money bills is that
controversies have arisen over
authorization bills which set
the ceilings for a number of
these programs. Authorization
bills must be acted upon before
the appropriation process can
be completed.
As usual, foreign aid is under
serious attack, and particularly
so when funds for many
domestic programs are
extremely tight. Almost
everyone familiar with the
program must marvel at the
way the program has survived
over the years ince the
Marshall Plan was established
in 1948. The program has been
unpopular all" along. Much of
the justification that supported
the Marshall Plan to rebuild
war destroyed European
economies has dwindled in
soul-searching about how long
we can continue to spend
billions of dollars to help other
nations when wt art
txpenencing serious financial
problems at home.