cYlew4 - journal
PR
AftOCIATION
Publiihed Every Thuraday at Raeford. N. C. 28376
119 W. Eiwood Avenue
Subatription Ralei la Advance
Per Year S4.00 6 Month. S2.25 3 Month. $1.25
PAULUICKSON Publiaher-Editur
SAM C. MORRIS General Manager
LAURIE TELFAIR Reporter
MRS PAUL DICKSON Society Editor
StkuiuJ Cla** PvMajU' Pud jl Kaclurd N.
(Jpinion (I/id < iminuwtury
by Paul Dicfcion
These May days are finally the kind that make you want to see what's
right with the world, rather than what's wrong with it, although the
fanners will still tell you we've got to have warmer nights before things
will grow.
And of course, the extremes are still around, too. It saddens your heart
to read of the lack of water in South Florida, with the great Everglades
dry, parched and actually burning for lack of water. And the ski people in
Vermont who say their snow is the most beautiful of the whole year, but
are closing their resorts because people just are not interested in snow and
skis right now.
On our beaches and in our mountains, everybody seems to be getting
ready for company. There is a great air of expectancy, and some of the
company is already beginning to come. . . and to litter, but that's another
subject.
For things to be concerned about, what about the dollar? Do you
suppose what financial folks and money traders in Europe think about the
value of our American dollar is going to have any great effect on us here? 1
have been reading some and trying to figure just what has been going on in
this crisis of value between currencies, and about all I can come up with
for an answer is that the various moneys - dollars, marks, francs, etc., are
just seeking their level of real value in the world's markets and resisting, as
it were, efforts to maintain arbitrary and artificial values. And as in every
case of a sizable value change of a commodity, you have the rush of those
who may see or think they see the way to make a fast buck.
There is some sort of irony in this situation, although it may be hard to
describe. This dollar for the past 25 years has kept much of the world
from starving, as we poured billion after billion overseas, year after year,
to first this country and then that, until there is no place on the earth that
has not felt its benefit, and now there are so many of them over there,
everywhere, that folks are beginning not to want to see them any more.
They are wanting something a little harder to get.
There are still plenty of people wanting dollars, but it might be that
right now would be a good time for us to get a little smarter and start
slowing down on this outflow, before it does get so no one wants to see a
dollar. Right now they'll still buy plenty, even if not quite as much as
they would.
With the relationship of the dollar to other currencies and to gold
staying at the same level for several years, any American housewife could
tell that there is no way it could last, because the dollar will not buy the
groceries it would three years ago, nor the furniture, nor a hundred other
items. So now a Volkswagen and a Leica camera are going to cost more
too. So what, really, and the housewife could have told you it had to
happen, couldn't she?
Now, before someone who claims to understand the international
monetary system jumps down my throat for talking about something too
deep for me, let me say that 1 do not understand the system, nor the
forces which make the currencies behave as they do. I am convinced that
some of these forces are contrived and artificial, and that contrived and
artificial measures applied to economics leads to the same end whenever
they are applied and this is crisis.
I remember reading in Margaret Coit's book on a great American
business man, Bernard Baruch, native of South Carolina, a description of
the "New Deal" with which Franklin Roosevelt and the Democratic
Party kept a lot of us from starving 38 years ago. She said the New Deal
was a "bloodless economic and social revolution, based on the premise
that the economic balance could no longer be maintained by the
functioning of economic law alone."
There were many people then, and there still are many, who feel that
the New Deal started economic habits from which the economy of the
country and the world will never fully recover. 1 couldn't really say about
that, but I do believe the two situations relate in that neither then nor
now has economic law alone been allowed to function. It could be that an
attempt to allow it to do so by the Nixon administration is causing the
dollar crisis in the world money markets, and this may not be bad in the
long run. And certainly keeping us from starving 38 years ago was not
bad.
Browsing in the files
of Tht Nows-Journal
25 years ago
Thunday, May 16, 1946
The local REA Cooperation has
received $410,000 to finance the
construction of its "C" project lines
consisting of 235 miles of rural power
lines in the counties of Hoke, Robeson,
Scotland and Cumberland, C.A. Alford,
President of the Cooperative, announced
this week.
** + ?
Lt. Juliui F. Jordan has been separated
from the Dental Corps of the U.S. Navy
after 20 months service in Guam and
Hawaii.
Lacy F. Clark, Raeford Postmaster,
announced yesterday that effective today
?U mall addnseed and delivered at
Tirnbtfland, R-l, would b? delivered
from th? Raeford port office. Ha statad
thtt the new Raeford Route would b?
Routi .1.
The Mildouson school committee had
its meeting last week and re ? elected the
teachers for another year.
#???
From Poole's Medley:
One thing is sure and certain; two rival
governments cannot exist in the same
place at the same time, "Unlets, two
agree, they cannot walk together."
In a recent iasue the "Cotton Press,"
trade magazine of the cotton seed
crushing industry published in Dallas,
Texas, carried a write ? up on J. Benton
Thomas and his Imminent retirement
from the oil milling business.
??**
15 years ago
Thursday, May 10, I9S*
W.A. Crowley died early Wednesday in
? FayettevlUe hospital after ? short
lUneea,
'Sure, getting here was a barrel of fun,
but if we don't get out of this dump we're through'
"?>?. CXAmtljn. w?c t> _AA??<
By LAURIE TELFAIR
The Miles Change
Customs And Words
My mother wrote me last week and
said they were having blackberry winter
there. On using that term around here. I
find it isn't a familiar expression, but, as
most folks around Tennessee and
Mississippi know, blackberry winter is the
cool spell that comes between Easter and
summer. And, usually, the blackbejnes
are in bloom about that time.
We had blackberry winter here last
week too. I saw the blackberry bushes
blooming in the woods behind my house.
Moving from Tennessee to Norm
Carolina is not like moving, say, from
Michigan to North Carolina. On a move
from the south to the north, or vice versa,
you expect differences in customs,
climate and terrain. But Tennessee and
North Carolina, neighboring states, are
similar and by their very similarity, the
differences stand out more sharply.
Unfamiliar figures of speech, like
blackberry winter, make you remember
that here is an alien. One such expression
that I have heard nowhere else is "get up
with," meaning to see or to confer with.
In Memphis, we'd probably use the vetb
"see" or "contact."
Puppy Creek
Philosopher
Deareditar:
According to an article i read in a
newspaper last night which was three
days old but still better than the re ? run
on television, the Post Office Department
in Washington has worked out a speeded ?
up mail delivery system whereby it'll
guarantee an air ? mail letter will get to its
destination in 24 hours within an area not
more than 600 miles away. Further away,
it'll take 2 days.
To pay for this speed, the post office's
word, not mine, the cost of an air - mail
stamp will be increased.
I have been thinking this over and have
begun to wonder why the Post Office
Department, if it's convinced there are
enough people within 600 miles of
Raeford who have to have their mail
within 24 hours, doesn't come into the
modern age.
Why doesn't it issue a special Pickup
Truck Stamp?
With the county now inter - laced with
good roads, any pickup truck can get to
any point within 600 miles of here in far
less than 24 hours. That'll beat airplanes
all hollow.
Why haul mail say in New York City
out to some distant airport, load it on a
plane, fly It to Boston, land after waiting
for air traffic to clear, unload it at the
airport there and haul it in to the post
oftlce, when you can back a pickup up to
the first post office, load the mail on, and
take off for the next city and be half -
way there before an airplane can make up
its mind to take off?
Under this new service, people in no
hurry about their mail could stamp their
letters Air Mail and those in a hurrv could
sump their PICKUP TRUCK. It would be
the prestigious thing to do.
If you think this is a good idea, write
the P-. stmaster General a letter now so
ht'U have plenty of time to get it before
mid ? summer.
Yours uithfully,
J.A.
The terrain and vegetation is similar,
yet different here also. Raeford and
Memphis are almost straight across from
each other on the map, though separated
by about 800 miles, but (he climate and
hence, the vegetation, is much different.
I had never seen tobacco growing until
I came to North Carolina. Oh. I know
that tobacco grows in Tennessee, but in
the mountains, and contrary to popular
opinion, most of Tennessee is flatland.
Pine trees and magnolias are not native
to Memphis either and dogwood doesn't
grow in the profusion that it does around
here. There are some pines and magnolias,
mostly transplanted from a more
Southern region. And some dogwoods
grow wild in the woods, but most are
planted in yards and tended like other
shrubs. The woods are not as colorful as
North Carolina woods. And. of course,
there isn't very much left to call woods
around Memphis. Most have been cut
years ago to make room for houses or
highways.
The cardinal is rare enough in Memphis
to be immediately noticeable here, where
they are more plentiful. I see two
brilliantly colored males as I go home
each day. They are always around
Rockfish Creek and must nest nearby.
We don't have that pretty red ? topped
grass or weed that is growing in the fields
and alongside the road now. Ann Webb
tells me its callcd sour grass. 1 didn't
notice it last spring, although it must have
been there.
Customs are similar but different also.
The holidays observed in the two states
are not the same, although both were
Confederate states.
In Memphis, we don't observe either
Confederate Memorial Day or Memorial
Day (except for federal employees.) And,
of course, there was no Mecklenburg
Independence Day. The schools and some
offices closed for Good Friday, but
Easter Monday was unheard of. The
schools also got off a day in spring for the
Cotton Carnival, the big celebration in
thecity.
Some of the questions that are being
hasseled in the legislature now have
already been settled in Tennessee (and
vice versa, of course) so I view some of
the changes proposed from a different
position than do North Carolinians.
Take the matter of having elections on
Tuesday. Since we have always, as far as I
know, had elections on Tuesday, I
thought Saturday voting was odd.
Tuesday elections don't cause any
problems, as employers are required to
allow employees time off to vote, if the
working hours span the voting times and
there is a bonus for the school kids and
teachers. Since some of the schools are
used as polling places, school is let out for
election day, thereby causing the kids to
think kindly of that civic duty.
Liquor by the drink is also an old
battle. Not too many years ago. the local
option passed in that brown ? bagging
state, but the drys were always able to
defeat the mixed drink question in
Memphis. Finally, on the last vote, the
police enforced the liquor laws with great
vigor for about 18 months before the
election, drying up the country clubs and
all the "private" clubs, and the drinkers
became thirsty enough to vote. Mixed
drinks have been sold in Memphis for
about two years now and have been a
disappointment to all concerned. The
money envisioned by the restaurant
owners and motel operators from
increased revenue and conventions didn't
materialize and the doom and destruction
imagined by the drys didn't come to pass
either.
Letters
To The
Editor
I
I wish to disagiee with the view of Mrs.
Williams. 1 think The News-Journal owes
the people of Hoke County an obligation
to print all the facts in a case of this type.
We need a full report not a brief back
page article. It concerns everyone. 1 high
commend The News-Journal for printing
all the facts in the article. How can The
News-Journal be ours if they don't print
the truth. Here's to full details always.
Mrs. Gerald Pittman
We, the members of the Professional
Women's Club of Raeford, being
concerned with the moral, spiritual, and
educational standards of our community,
would like to take this means of
protesting the blatant reporting of the
open meeting of the Hoke County School
Board in a session held recently. Whereas
we vigorously support open meetings to
discuss public business and freedom of
the press, we oppose irresponsible
journalism. Irreparable damage has been
done to two lives; educational progress
has been hindered; and the entire
community has been tainted largely
through the publication of your news
article.
A newspaper can be the bulwark of a
community; but when sensationalism
becomes the criterion for reporting news,
the newspaper has lost its usefulness.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Phyllis C. Duncan, Pres.
The Professional Women's Club
Of Raeford
I certainly agree with a great part of
your editorial concerning our school case.
It was something we all regret very much,
and it made those of us in the teaching
profession realise that we are as human as
everyone else. One part I disagree with,
and perhaps this is what got us hot under
the collars was that all of the facts didn't
come out. When you said you told it like
it was, my friend, you didn't tell all there
was to tell, and I realize you couldn't,
because you didn't know all the facts.
Not once was I asked by The News
Journal for additional facts, other than
those heard at the hearing.
In defense of my teachers I must once
again disagree with you, because a
confidence between a teacher and a
student is not easily broken. Sure they
erred in keeping anything this serious a
secret so long, but the frustrations that
are associated with anything this serious
could cause a teacher to do some
investigation before he reported it to the
proper authorities. Mr. Abernethy and I
erred in not reporting it to the sheriff.
Mr. Barrington has been very patient and
fair with us in explaining the law, and
from now on we will know. I also realize
that ignorance of the law is no excuse,
but it is a pretty tough job to run a high
school, and anyone that wants to be
where the action is should come out and
spend a day with us. You see Paul, we axe
ignorant of the law because we are
principal, teacher, preacher, counselor,
banker, coach and janitor. It is pretty
tough to fit the hat of the lawyer along
with the other hats, and over the years I
have become a skeptic in dealing with the
public, because we are criticized greatly
over the bridge table, and at the beauty
shop, and in the barber shop. We hear
very little about the good things we do.
When you have a patrolman in the county
to stand around the stores and criticizc
your rules, and question your dress code,
and you* have another group to tell how
they would run the school, and the
coaches they would fire, and the teachers
that are incompetent when you know full
well they wouldn't last ten minutes in
your job, and you have a merchant up
town offer to pay the lawyer's fee if one
of your girls wears a pants suit to school,
it makes it pretty hard to love the public.
You spend half your time defending your
faculty, and the other half defending
your students. What I really feel like
doing is telling the patrolman how to
write a ticket, and the group sitting
around how to run their business.
When the school case is settled, I will
be the goat, just as I was on the Marshalls
last year, but I have been the goat before
and survived and I will survive this one.
Sincerely,
Raz Autry
Just One Thing
After Another
By Carl Goerch
Recently we read in the papers of the
death of a woman in the western part of
the state who was 108 years old, and this
resulted in a discussion with some friends
about the oldest person that ever has
liyed in North Carolina.
We don't know for sure, but we
wouldn't be surprised if this distinction
didn't belong to a native of Ocracoke
who died a long time ago. Her tombstone
is in the Ocracoke cemetery and the
inscription on it reads like this:
In memory of
ANN HOWARD
Wife of Geo. E. Howard
Born ??, 1724
Died, Nov. 2, 1841
Aged 117 years.
Perhaps the North Carolinian with the
least curiosity was one William C.
Jackson, who is said to have been a silent
man, who seldom smiled and was never
known to have laughed. When the
Wilmington and Weldon Railroad came to
town, everybody flocked to the tracks to
see the novelty except Jackson. He lived
the rest of his life without enough
curiosity to walk to a tew blocks to see it.
About 20 years ago Jesse Jones of
Kinston was running for the office of
District Governor of Lions Club.
Mr. Jones was in the S&W Cafeteria in
Raleigh and proceeded to sit down at a
table at which another man -- a stranger
to him -- already was seated. Mr. Jones
saw a Lions club emblem in the lapel of
his coat and immediately introduced
himself.
"Jesse Jones," he said as he extended
his hand.
The other man shook hands and said,
"Yes, that's right."
That nonplussed Mr. Jones for a
moment and then he said: "And what's
your name, please?"
The other man showed signs of
confusion but finally came out with,
"Jesse Jones."
"That's right," said Mr. Jones, smiling
brightly, "I'm Jesse Jones from Kinston,
And you?"
Well, there's no use in dragging it out
any longer. The upshot of the business
was that Mr. Jesse Jones of Kinston and
Mr. Jesse Jones of Fuquay Springs were
talking to each other.
It would never do, of course, to
mention names in connection with this
little item: all we can say is that it's the
truth.
A married man in Raleigh told us last
Wednesday afternoon that he and his wife
had been invited out to play bridge. "And
I'd rather take a beating than go," he
added.
Thursday morning we saw him again
and asked him how he had enjoyed his
bridge game the night before.
"I had a lucky break and didn't have to
go," he said.
"What happened?" we inquired.
"My wife got sick," he said.
STORIES BEHIND
WORDS
*>v
William S. P?nfleld
Canter
When Thomas A. Beckct became
Archbishop of Canterbury lie opposed
King Heny II in many matters. In 1170
some of the king's followers, upon a hint
from him, assassinated the archbishop in
Canterbury Cathedral. The king was
required by the Pope to do penance at
Becket's tomb.
Becket was canonized and it became
fashionable for the people of hngland to
make pilgrimages to the saint's shrine at
Canterbury.
Many of the pilgrims traveled great
distances, and those who were mounted
rode their horses a', an easy gallop so as
not to overexert them. The gait was
called a "Canterbury gallop," a name that
was shortened to "Canterbury" and
finally to "canter."
People & Issues
Oil BLUE ? ? ?
ANNEXATION -? For weeks, yes
months, the Fayetteville Observer has
been hammering away almost daily in its
editorial columns and with news articles
in an attempt to get Seantors John
Henley and Hector McGeachy to enact
the bill sponsored by Representatives
Bryan and Jernigan to bring Cumberland
County under the statewide annexation
laws.
Henley, chairman of the powerful
Senate Appropriations Committee and
McGeachey, chairman of the Senate
Judiciary Committee and a former
president pro tempore of the Senate have
been standing like a wall refusing to be
pressured by "North Carolina's Oldest
Newspaper'' or any other group. It looks
like a fight between the city dwellers and
the out ? lying areas. People in
Cumberland say it is a very emotional
issue and how they will decide it nobody
knows ?? except they appear to be
standing like "Stonewall" Jackion against
the Observer's onslaughts.
VIOLENCE ~ Our opinion is thai the
violence in Washington last week by the
demonstrators for peace hurt the cause of
peace if it had any effect on national
policies. Many people do not believe that
the demonstrators have much serious
interest in the Vietnam War one way or
another. It is simply an issue which gives
dissatisfied people something to
demonstrate about and TT the war were
over it would be something else. There
are thousands of people on the "dove"
side who are greatly interested in
immediate peace but who want no part of
the demonstrators of the kind who tried
to stop the wheels of government in
Washington last week.
Throughout the land the longing is for
peace in Vietnam and quiet and order
here at home.
AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE You
hear a lot of talk about the high cost of
automobile insurance but regardleu of
the laws which are enacted we doubt that
See CLIFF BLUE, Page 9