^Ae - journal
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
Ca/io&HCi
PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Published Every Thursday it Raeford, N.C. 28376
119 W. Elwood Avenue
Subscription Rates In Advance
Per Year - $5.00 6 Months - $2.75 3 Montfis - $ 1.50
PAUL DICKSON PuNWiet-Editot
SAM C.MORRIS General Mincer
LAURIE TELFAIR Associate Editor
MRS. PAUL DICKSON Society Editor
MARTY VEGA Repotter
Second Class Postage at Raeford, N.C.
THURSDAY, JUNE 26, 1975
As We See It
By Laurie Telfair
It has been several weeks since the Raeford Housing Authority
was reactivated - if that is the correct term, for they are yet to hold
a single meeting.
A meeting was scheduled by chairman Neill McFadyen, but then
he was told that the members had to be sworn in, and since that
detail had not been arranged, the meeting was canceled.
A swearing in seems simple enough to organize. The election
board went through the routine last week during a lunch break.
It doesn't seem likely that many solutions to the area's critical
housing needs will be found if someone - either city officials or the
housing authority itself - can't put an organizational meeting
together and get the members sworn in.
Salaries have become the question around city hall, as the city
council studies the annual budget proposal.
Cost of living raises were eliminated in the name of economy, but
later decisions on activities to be funded have nullified any savings.
Councilmen are now asking the city manager to try to find enough
money for raises, since funds for additional projects seems to be
available.
For example, it is estimated that five per cent raises would have
cost the city about $16,000 next year. The city couldn't afford
that, but the council agreed, with one opposing vote, to increase the
funding to the Chamber of Commerce by $2,500.
Then there's the library. For years, city residents have paid twice
to the library since a portion of both the city and the county tax
dollar go into operating the library. This year, the library was
eliminated from the proposed city budget, since no request for
funds was received. But a last minute plea by library board
members at the budget hearing last week reinstated, with one
abstaining vote, $5,000 for the library.
The money was approved, but not before city officials began to
ask why city taxpayers should be asked to pay salaries for county
employees. It's a good question. Hold on to it for another year.
These are two obvious examples of funding that could have been
deferred until after salary increases were approved, if the council
had chosen to do so. It is not to say that the Chamber and the
library should not be considered for funds. But it does seem that,
given the bite inflation has taken from salaries, that a raise for city
employees is in order.
The city council has asked the city manager to look for some
more money for its employees. Perhaps, he'll find it.
The city council has also asked the recreation commission to
consider spending some of the $19,000 allotted by the city to
recreation on developing a city tennis court, to supplement the
courts at the high school.
With the popularity with all ages of tennis that seems like a good
use for recreation funds.
Browsing in the files
of The News-Journal
25 years ago
Last Thursday night the Raeford
Kiwanis Club held its regular weekly
supper meeting at Camp Tom
Upchurch, new camp of the Cape
Fear Area council. Boy Scouts of
America.
Coach Haywood Faircloth, who is
conducting the yearly summer
program for school - age boys and
girls, reported yesterday that the
progress seemed to be on its way to a
good season.
Funeral services will be conducted
this afternoon at Galatia Presbyterian
church for John William Scull,
respected 88 - year ? old citizen of
the county who passed away at his
home in McLauchlin township
Tuesday afternoon after an illness of
several months.
First cotton blooms brought in to
The News-Journal this year were
from E.C. Smith's farm near
Bowmore.
15 years ago
Thursday, June 23,1960
Voting is expected to be light in
Saturday's second primary which pits
Terry Sanford against I. Beverly
Lake, in their bid for Democratic
party nomination as candidate for
governor.
Clyde Upchurch, Jr., chairman of
the county chapter of the American
Red Cross, has announced a planning
meeting for the Hoke County blood
program in the recreation room of
the Methodist Church next Tuesday
at 10:30 ajn.
The Robeson Baptist association is
beginning work for churches in two
areas among Indian residents of Hoke
County as a result of a Christian
census taken earlier this year, reports
the Rev. John M. Glenn, pastor of
the First Baptist Church of Raeford.
'Behind every successful man...'
The Christian Science Monitor
? by Marly Vega
Big Factor In Economy
One of the most powerful factors
influencing the economy is running
out of toilet tissue at odd hours.
The proportions of this are
immense, when you consider if one
husband, who is sent out to purchase
this item, comes back with anywhere
from S10-S25 worth of groceries and
sundries, along with the toilet paper,
just to hide the shameful
embarassment.
If every household in America
runs out of toilet paper at 7 pjn. on
a Sunday night, we could really get
the country out of the slump,
providing you can find someone
willing to make the trip at all.
For some strange reason, no one in
the family can consider the prospect
Puppy Creek
Philospher
Editor's Note: The Puppy Creek
Philosopher on his Hoke County
grass farm gets a little serious this
week. Must be the weather.
Dear editor:
According to a small item in the
paper the other day, the big
countries now having the ability to
make nuclear bombs are worried over
the sale of nuclear power plants to
smaller countries. As I understand it,
such power plants are being sold
already, and die nuclear powers are
trying to figure out some safeguards
to keep these small countries from
using their nuclear power plants for
making bombs along with electricity.
I'm afraid it's too late. Once
nuclear power has been discovered
by one country and two or three
others catch on to how it's made,
safeguarding against the further
spread of the secret is like trying to
safeguard against the spread of the
secret of the bicycle.
The problem now is not how to
keep some small country most of us
never heard of from getting hold of
nuclear power and therefore a
nuclear bomb, but how to keep
anybody from dropping one of the
things and starting an all-out nuclear
war and destroying three-fourths of
the people on earth.
All I know is that there never was
a child who didn't want to try out a
new toy or a country that didn't
want to try out a new weapon, and if
that happens now with nuclear
weapons scattered all around the
world, look out.
The problem then becomes, who
among us should be protected against
such a holocaust, who should we save
in underground fortresses to start
civilization all over again? I have
given this some thought and have
worked up a list.
In the first place, we wouldn't
want very many scientists, lest they
come out of their hiding place
underground and start right back to
work figuring out how to make a
hydrogen bomb. No, the list should
run more to poets, editors, teachers,
farmers, repairmen, housewives and
other less harmful members of the
species, with maybe a banker thrown
in here and there, and maybe a few
politicians to give the survivors
something to laugh about. After all,
you know, all work and no play...
Yours faithfully,
J.A.
of walking into a nearby convenience
store, plunking down that one single
commodity on the counter, and
maintaining normal composure as the
salesperson rings it up.
"Find a child and bribe him to
go," says my husband.
"The only child willing to do it
would be under the age of five, and
any of them out on the streets now
would probably be delinquents."
"Look, there's nothing
embarassing about buying just toilet
paper. People do it all the time."
"Yeah, how come when you go,
you always come back with a box of
Kleenex?"
"Er, they were out of toilet
paper."
"Go ask the neighbors for some."
"Are you crazy?"
Finally it is agreed to go to a store
ten miles away where we are not
known.
Thirty minutes later the shopper
comes back.
"Where's the toilet paper?"
"They didn't have any."
"Liar."
"All right, I went in, I walked
around, I couldn't find it, the man
said 'Can 1 help you,' I said, 'No, just
looking, thanks."
"Go on."
"Well, I still couldn't find it, and
the man was getting nervous, he
thought 1 was going to hold him up,
so 1 had to leave."
"You just couldn't bring yourself
to say, 'where do you keep your
toilet paper,' could you?"
"All right. There's only one thing
to do."
"Call the party off."
"No. Call everyone up and tell
them 'bring your own.'
Facts You Should Know
Backstabber
The snake with the longest fangs
in the world is the Gaboon viper,
(also known as Bitus gabonica) of
tropical Africa. In a six foot-long
one, the fangs are almost two inches
(1.96).
On February 12, 1963, at the
Philadelphia zoo, a gaboon viper bit
himself to death. Zookeepers found
the corpse with his fangs embedded
deeply in his back.
It was the only one the zoo had.
CLIFF BLUE) ? ? ?
People & Issues
THRIFT IN GOVERNMENT...For
several years with an ever inflated
economy, appropriations have been
made by the General Assembly and
other authorities without a great deal
of examination of the real needs.
Appropriating authorities would start
with die last budget and add on.
With the recent dip in tax collections
the General Assembly as well as the
counties and municipalities have had
to take a deeper look at the requests
to weed out funds for questionable
projects. This has been good for
thrift and economy in government
and for the taxpayers from whence
comes the money for all the projects
supported by public funds.
It seems that the only way for
government to ferret out waste and
"dry rot" in government spending is
for a recession to hit, necessitating
dose scrutiny in government
spending.
IRRESPONSIBLE?...It seems that
the U.S. House of Representatives in
Washington, dominated by the
"spend and spend" philosophy is
proving to be somewhat paradox.
The liberal House of Representatives
which has been voting for record
deficit spending has now voted to
reject an increase in the national debt
ceiling to cover the increased
expenditures which they have voted!
What would you call this, responsible
stewardship or wreckmanship or an
awakening to fiscal responsibility?
GOOD LEGISLA
TION...Sometimes you begin to feel
that entirely too much legislation
and court decisions are against the
welfare and interest of the "little
man" and the "middle man" about
whom we hear so much in recent
months.
We will mention a couple of pieces
of government action, one a ruling
by the U.S. Supreme Court and the
other an enactment by Congress
which we believe is in the public
interest and particularly the "little
man" and the "middle man."
1. The U.S. Supreme Court's
ruling outlawing "price fixing"
among lawyers will be welcome news
to citizens everywhere and especially
homebuyers in the low and medium
income brackets. In some sections
the lawyers had already abandoned
the "price fixing" practice. One
lawyer with whom we talked
vigorously applauded the high court's
decision.
2. A new law enacted by Congress
effecting home buyers and sellers
provide that the settlement costs will
have to be itemized by the mortgage
lender at least 12 days before the
deal is closed and presented to the
buyer.
This is another piece of sound
legislation, even though it should
never have been necessary.
ECU MED SCHOOL...Con
gratulations to Dr. Leo Jenkins and
the legion of supporters of the ECU
Med School over the state for their
apparent victory in making sure a
four-year medical school at East
Carolina University.
Greenville, in the heart of Eastern
North Carolina appears to have been
die right place for the school
designed to bring about better health
care for the people of North
Carolina-and especially in rural
North Carolina where sickness and *
pain in the home of the one-galtus
farmer is just as real as in the homes
of the elite and wealthy.
Down the pathway of years we
suspect writers in reporting the long,
hard but successful campaign waged
for the ECU Medical School will be
saying that it was "a people's"
campaign that won out in a battle
that was fought out every step of the
way.
SOCIAL SERVICES...We note
from former State Senator Ashley
Futrell's Washington Daily News that
there is great variance in the mount
of money spent on welfare or social
services in counties if comparable
situations.
In his first of a series of articles
Futrell points out that the new
tentative budget for the social
services department in his home
county of Beaufort has set the cost
at $2,085,749 with Beaufort County
paying $587,684 with 62 budgeted
positions with the social services
director's salary for the coming year
being set at $22,764.
In Moore County, comparable in
many ways to Beaufort in population
and per capita earnings, the salary of
the director is $14,736 with 26
full-time and five part-time
employees.
We suspect a review of the social
services program in North Carolina
and in the nation as a whole will
show the social services bureaucracy
in many areas has been growing
somewhat like "topsy."
Report
To The
People
by Senator Robert Morgan
The sad truth here in Washington
is that we have failed to face up to
what will be our most critical
problem in the near future: our
supply of energy to run our industry
and light and heat our homes. Just
the other day, the government
released figures that showed we are
importing about 30 percent of the
crude oil we use and this figure is
rising. About the same time these
figures were released, there came the
news that the oil producing countries
were considering raising the price by
$3.00 a barrel.
These two developments show
clearly that we must find some
means of becoming independent of
our present source of oil.
While the Congress has been
seeking answers and has not yet
come up with the right program, I
feel that the President has not
provided an acceptable energy plan
for the future and has offered little
leadership in dealing with the
problem we have at present.
Mr. Ford has placed an additional
tariff of two dollars a barrel on
imported oil and wants to remove all
price controls from domestic oil
This will insure that the price at the
service station will rise sharply and if
the oil producing countries taise
prices appreciably-as they have
threatened to do later this year-some
believe that gasoline will go to nearly
one dollar a gallon.
These additional fuel costs, besides
being highly inflationary, are causing
businesses to cut back production,
thus contributing to unemployment.
And, of course, transportation costs
will get unbearably high.
The public has grown cynical
about the energy situation.
They saw the greatly increased
profits that were made by the big oil
companies during a period when
gasoline was so scarce that people
had to line up at service stations to
buy what they were allotted.
And an oil company which
supplies the state's only natural gas
pipeline closes its wells for repairs
last winter, causing some North
Carolina industries to close, including
plants that produce fertilizer. Instead
of talking about getting the wells
open again, the pipeline company
seemed more interested in
deregulating natural gas prices.
I believe the two major paths we
?must follow toward energy
self-sufficiency are voluntary
conservation and development of
new energy sources. The President
should be able to devote the
leadership and prestige of his office
to encouraging the American people
to do everything possible to be
energy-efficient.
Americans now waste more energy
than any other countries use, and by
correcting this situation, we shall
decrease our dependence on unstable
foreign sources. At the same time, we
must push forward with the
development of such new energy
sources as solar energy, geotherma)
energy, nuclear energy and a better
use of coal. Only by developing these
sources can we assure ourselves of
adequate and dependable supplies of
energy for the future.
This Is The Law
SPOUSES AS WITNESSES
May a wife testify both in behalf
of and against her husband in a civil
action?
Yes. A husband or wife is
competent to testify for or against
each other in all civil actions, with
two rigidly defined exceptions in
respect to adultery and "criminal
conversation."
Civil actions are court proceedings
that do not involve the prosecution
of a crime.
A husband returned from a long
trip earlier than was expected. He
found his wife in bed with another
man committing adultery. He
brought an action for divorce against
his wife on the ground of adultery.
WIS the husband be permitted to
testify for the purpose of proving the
adultery of his wife?
No. A North Carolina statute
provides that in the trial of a divorce
case "neither the husband nor the
wife shall be a competent witness to
prove the adultery of the other."
The admission of the wife cannot
be received as evidence to prove the
fact of adultery. She will not even be
permitted to voluntarily take the
witness stand to prove the act of
adultery.
The statute is designed not only to
prevent collusion where such exists,
but to remove the opportunity for it.
Both the husband and the wife are
incompetent to give evidence which
proves or tends to prove adultery.
Since the husband is unable to
produce any admissable evidence of
his wife's adultery, the divorce will
not be granted.
Evidence as to adultery must be
given by persons other than the
husband and the wife.