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PAUl DICKSON q^WmH*
SAM C. MORRIS SoctotjEdlto ?
MRS. PAUL DICKSON RiynWt
CHARLES BLACKBURN IUp*<*
CASS IE WASKO
S^oodCU-tPo-M*
at Raafotil, N.C.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1977
Siring up the memcsysteni^
JSTS ?
measures. So foo,' backward toward retention of the o
^"of r^CimSen .0 the U.S. Metric
President Carter's appointment ot^ ^ ,he start cf the latest
Boart) authorized C?gre most ot the ^st of the world m
effort to convince Americans J board, which has no
relying on metric me^?"ith planning and coordinating '
enforcement power, is charged ?P ? But tf recent
voluntary public con;f?fs '?ndard for measuring what's to come,
developments are a reha selling job on '
the Metric Board obviously s* tions that do business abroad
Although most big U 1 , communities are posting
already hive made the sw.tch many ? ..*?,?? die
speed limits in kiiometers a havc saying for years will
public in preparation for what system. Americans are still
be an inevitable conversion Weather Service recently
displaying little enthusias- shift to metric readings
decided to postpone its planned p and temperatures
forecasts describing bombarded with lettersof
in Celsius or centigrade a Administration was forced
fo'back off fro^P^ans to convert highway signs into kilometers as a
result of equally strong tance to change. The use of
Much of the opposition is Mmply "-? dimensi0IB, seems more
inch. foot, and yard, rooted >" ? note that the Celsius scale
natural and convenient. Some opp ^ ^ ^ Fahrenheit scale.
for measuring temperatures is P me .n metric football ?
And despite a recent expcrmientaloouc^cg sidelines and "meter
complete with fans understand the public address
maids" in the stands helping fa ^ teams to replace the
announcements - there to ibeen^ ^ ^ m . meter turfs.
120 - yard playing fields , 1 .fic and business communities n?
Metric conversion in^\e . . But when it comes to football
doubt will continue to occur quietly . hambufger by the kilogram
fields or convincing housewives ^ of gallons _ th?e
and motorists to think of gasol Metric Board s
are the everyday changes A* ?ll ?Jj* ? may be difficult ,o
powers of Pers"*s'?" ' xt\f^christian Science Monitor
measure ? using any scaie.
Cup of cheer?
.a a ? _ j <?*irUatmnc
The well- in, ended
cup of holiday cheer. O y Y timeless Rood news
season. the love of friends c^r of aTc?hol. Apart
from Bethlehem. They mean think of the benefits to the
from salutary effects on the imbibers, JJU ^ ^ tQ
world if all office parties became dry something to cheer
'ZS?X . no, taken in the
meantime. -Christian Science Monitor ...
Browsing in the
of The News-Journal^
25 years ago
Thursday, December 18, 19S2
The Hoke County Commission
ers and the Town and County
committee on the Army "Corridor"
land acquisition matter have called
a mass meeting of all Hoke County
citizens and property owners at
the courthouse for 7:30 o'clock
Saturday night to hear the farts
and make plans for the effort the
people and the government of the
county will make to present more of
their property being taken by the
Army.
? * *
Harvey Gobeille. manager of the
Para Thread Co. of North Carolina
plant here, was elected president of
the Raeford Chamber of Commerce
for 1953 by the chamber's di
rectors.
* * ?
Effective Thursday, December
18. Charles E. Morrison was
appointed acting postmaster for the
local post office after a postal
inspector concluded his study
Wednesday afternoon.
* ? *
Lawrence McNeill calmly sank a
free throw Tuesday night with four
seconds rgtfMgtojL to give the
Bucks a onWJ Ytctory over
Lumberton and u dean sweep for
the night.
1 5 years ago
Thursday, December 20, 1962
A last - second shot from the
corner bv Ben Brooks gave The
Pencil Pushers and undeserved 35 -
35 tie with the surprising Coronary
Kids in the first annual PTA -
Faculty basketball game, played
before a screaming, capacity crowd
Friday night.
* ? *
A good possibility exists for
Raeford to receive a brand - new
$320,000 Post office and federal
building.
* * *
Services were held Wednesday
afternoon at Antioch Presbyterian
for 71 - year - old elder and deacon
John Henry McPhaul. who died
Monday night after several years of
declining health.
* ? *
T.B, Upchurch. Jr.. of Raeford
has been appointed a member of
the National Cotton Council's
Committee on Production and
Marketing.
? * *
Raeford's Clarence Lytch has
purchased the Grand Champion
bull at show and sale held recently
at the Registered Short Horn Cattle
Show and Sale ?t Statesville.
?No! No!
I have just enough energy to get to the airport'
HOKUM
By Charles Blackburn
tuTj'c^ following is taken fh>m
MW 13 ^"eW b??k Rwcking
Words and Customs (Moore $8.95)
concerning Christmas and its
attendant lore.
oil!?* f,Ctk)n' and Ie8end are
almost comparable to a platter of
scrambled eggs amid all the excite
ment and transition from Saint
Nicholas to Santa Claus, from Gifts
?ay' ?? Defember 6. to the visit
EvlT i , Cchlmney on Christmas
Eve. But Saint Nicholas (4th
A.D.) often called thS
C ? y f'sh?p, IS an historical fact
Saint Nicholas lived in and around
t^rnJn Asia:Minor He became
the patron saint of boys, youne
5"en- and sa'>ors, and, as a saint!
J|ad endunng popularity and
importance in the Eastern Church
i he most famous painting of Saint
th'C y.Bicci dc Lorenzo, is in
the Metropolitan Museum.
Several legends seem to have
-22Sen d"nn8 tfee iaint-j lifetime.
Once when he was making a
pilgrimage to the Holy Land, a
tearful storm came up. and Saint
Nicholas raised his hand to placate
the fury of the weather. Thus
many seaport churches commemo
rate him, as the mariners' patron.
ano*her legend, one that
probably accounts for the custom
of hanging up stockings at Christ
mastime, was circulated while he
deafh ?r ^ Sh?rtly after his
. Two sisters, about to be forced
into prostitution because of ex
treme, unrelieved poverty, hung
stockings by the fire to
dry. (This was before the advent of
chimneys, when smoke-holes were
commonplace.) Saint Nicholas
Knew of the young sisters' awesome
decision, and as he rode above their
poor home on his gray ass, he
dropped some gold coins down the
smoke-hole. The coins fell into the
stockings while the sisters slept,
and they arose the next morning to
discover that they had been de
livered miraculously from the awful
tate of prostitution. When thev
sought an explanation for their
elders "Pained
that they had been visited by elves
while they slept.
In this legend, as in some of the
other tales about Saint Nicholas'
benefactions, the largesse is always
NSrhftJuF in secret- Sa>iit
Nicholas comes and goes as swiftly
as mysteriously, and as majestically
as Santa Claus does today. But
now and then, the saint's charity is
discovered accidentally, by one
other person, almost always a
nobleman, who grabs at the flying
.and J"st manages to catch
nold to his flowing robe.
The nobleman takes a vow of
eternal secrecy. No one must ever
know about Saint Nicholas' good
fact that the saint's
confidante is always a nobleman
suggests that commoners of the era
were not considered safer reposi
tone5 for, uch prodigious secrets.
*nd the* ^les of disarming
detection, the nobleman's always
grabbing the saint's robe seems to
have parallels in religious litera
ture. perhaps, with some of the
symbolism of those who touched
Jesus terminal robe.
Although nothing approximating
the precise date is extant, within a
century or two of Saint Nicholas'
demise, his feast day. December 6
a chl,dren'* holiday in the
Netherlands, a day of gifts to the
young. The saint flew about Dutch
nomes. on December 6. traveling
on a gray horse, or a white ass. or
children? t0 ** g'fts for good
Expectant children fixed hay
oats, some sort of fodder, for the
horse or the ass. and in their
wooden shoes they placed sweet
cakes, or cakes and honey, for
Saint Nicholas. He fed the fodder
to his steed, and when he ate the
cakes, he placed his own gifts in the
children's wooden shoes. But if the
children in a specific home were
bad, the fodder was untouched,
and rods (ashes and switches in
America's insular era) were found
in the wooden shoes.
New York's transplanted Dutch
men brought Saint Nicholas to the
New World in the guise of Santa
Claus, and, as in England, gifts to
children and the general exchange
of presents, attached to Christmas.
From descriptions written by
Washington Irving (1783-1859)
( Knickerbocker's History of New
York ] and others, Santa Claus is
dressed in brown and he smokes a
long clay pipe. In the limited
festival parades of the 18th century,
Santa Claus rides in a horse-drawn
vehicle that seems to approximate
tfft 19th-"8entury phaeton.
Santa Claus, as he is recognized
today, stepped from Clement
Moore's poem of 1823, "A Visit
From St. Nicholas," better known
to moderns via the popular adapta
tion, " 'Twas the Night Before
Christmas":
'Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not
even a mouse."
Moore (1779-1863), born in New
York City, wrote the poem in 1822
for the amusement and edification
of his own children, and the poem
was published, without Moore's
awareness, in the Troy, N.Y.
Sentinel on December 23, 1823. It
is unlikely that in the entire history
of literature a single publication
ever established so widely and
firmly an image or institution to the
degree to which Moore's poem
fixed Santa Claus for all time to
come.
Insofar as one can ascertain,
Santa Claus' classic picture was
drawn first by Thomas Nast, the
famous political cartoonist, in
1863. Nast's drawing, duplicated
thousands of times by flesh-and
blood Santa Clauses in American
stores during the long Christmas
season, is based on the description
in Clement Moore's poem.
Moore, curiously enough, for a
man whose reputation rests almost
exclusively on a children's poem
song, was professor of Oriental and
Greek literature at New York's
General Theological Seminary. An
ordained divine, Moore gave the
land on which the Seminary stands.
One of America's finest linguists of
the early era, he attained tre
mendous professional stature for .4
Compendious Lexicon of the He
brew Language, published in 1809.
It looks as if there will be no
agreement in 1977 on a compre
hensive energy policy for the
nation. A conference committee of
members from the Senate and the
House of Representatives was not
able to agree on some important
sections of the legislation and
Congress will have to try again early
in 1978.
Basically the battle has been
between the oil industry and the
President, who proposed an energy
plan several months ago. The oil
companies have criticized the Pre
sident's plan and he has charged
them with seeking windfall profits.
One of the points at issue has
been the deregulation of the price
of natural gas. The oil companies
want all controls removed and the
President wants them kept on.
although he agreed to raise the
price considerably.
But the real issue is something
called the "oil equalization tax."
Essentially, this tax is a response to
the price fixing by the cartel of oil
producing nations (OPEC).
Four years ago. when the OPEC
cartel increased oil prices sharply,
the Congress placed price controls
on crude oil produced in this
country. Without the controls,
domestic oil prices would have
soared to the world price and the oil
companies would have had a
tremendous windfall. American
produced oil is still controlled by
the government and is far below the
price we pay for imported oil,
which holds down the price of
gasoline at the filling station.
On one point, the Administra
tion and the 6il companies agree; to
cut down on the use of energy and
to encourage exploration for new
domestic oil, the price at the pump
should go up ?? probably by as
much as nine cents a gallon. But
Report
To The
People
k
bv Senator Robert Morgan
where the President and the oil
industry differ is on the question of
who should get the extra money.
Naturally, the oil companies
want it. and say that they need it
for exploration. The President
wants to return it to the people
through tax rebates. Personally. 1
don't agree with either of these
positions. Making the consumer
pay more and then giving the
difference back to him doesn't
promise much energy saving.
1 also can't accept the oil
companies' argument that they
would be given the huge profits
windfall in the name of free
enterprise. We don't have a free?.'. .
market in oil and we haven't had
since OPEC cartel started setting
the price for imported oil. To allow
domestic oil to rise to OPEC levels
isn't free enterprise. Free enterprise
exists when competition sets prices,
not when prices are fixed by a
cartel.
If the price of domestic oil needs
to go up to reduce our dependence
on foreign government. 1 would like
to see the extra money used to
develop alternative sources of ?
energy and to finance conservation
measures. That approach was not
an option that the conference
committee had before it.
Now it looks as if we shall have
energy and its problems before us
when the Congress resumes in
January. Some compromise seems
inevitable and I hope that we will
find a way to cut our oil imports
without harming the consumer and
adding to inflation.
One thing seems certain. We are
going to have to find substitutes for Jkk
oil, and this must be done in the^ra
not too distant future. It's a
program that can't be ignored or -
delayed.
CLIFF BLUE . . .
People & Issues
SOCIAL SECURITY. . .Con
gress last week did what it should
have done years ago when it passed
legislation to bolster up the Social
Security fund which is now paying
out more than it takes in. However,
in the act passed, the legislators
proved again that the majority are
politicians first and statesmen sec
ond by postponing the social
security tax increase until after the
1978 election when all congressmen
must face the reaction of the voters
again.
While the National deficit has
been growing for many years; only
in the more recent years has the
Social Security fund been heading
that way with an ever- increasing
speed. Despite the "political angle"
to the new Social Security tax. the
legislators are to be congratulated
for their move to shore-up the
program which many people feel
was one of the finest measures
adopted by the Franklin D. Roose
velt administration. Another solid
move by the FDR administration
was the Federal Deposit Corpora
tion
CARTER. . .As you look back
on Carter's first year in the White
House, many feel that it is much
less than they hoped for, and this is
indicated in most public opinion
polls.
Support of Carter in his presi
dential campaign by organized
labor and most of the liberals has
caused him problems in Congress
which is hard for him to by-pass
and move forward in a way which
he might have preferred. No doubt
the labor unions and the liberals
question Carter's support on some
"gut issues."
REASONABLE. . The home
insulation law which goes into
effect in North Carolina on January
I, 1978 is certainly a solid and
reasonable approach to the energy
crisis. Good insulation in most
homes will probably save more
energy than any other one method.
HOOVER ADAMS. . .Hoover
Adams, editor and publisher of the
Daily Dispatch in Dunn was a
luncheon guest of President Carter
at the White House recently.
Hoover wrote a couple of columns
in his paper about his White House
visit. "Talking to him is just like
talking to an old friend, or your
neighbor next door," wrote the
Dunn editor who was one of 24
news media representatives invited
from over the nation. Hoover, who
was the only representative from
North Carolina, sat two seats from
the President in the seat occupied
by the Secretary of Commerce in
cabinet meetings.
Concluding his article, Hoover .
said: "You just can't attend such
an event without going away with a
greater appreciation of President ,
Carter and all those who serve us at
the White House." Hoover invited
President Carter to drop by Dunn
while in Fayetteville, but the Presi
dent explained that his schedule
was too crowded to make the Dunn
visit.
CHRISTMAS IS CALLING. . .
As a grammer school boy I
remember this recitation I was
given to say more years ago than I
like to remember: "Christmas has
called and I want to go back, back
through the years to a day that I
know, over the trail of a dream
woven track into the heart of a
long-time ago."
Puppy Creek Philosopher
Dear editor:
One of the major airlines, being
sued for millions by the victims of a
plane crash in a storm last year, is
now suing the Weather Bureau for
not giving it a correct weather
report. It says the Bureau was
"negligent in gathering and dis
seminating weather conditions,"
which caused the pilot to fly into a
storm with tragic results.
I am going to watch that suit very
carefully, and I imagine a lot of
lawyers will too. It opens up
boundless possibilities for more
court business than the profession
has dreamed of. Just thinTk. an end
to no-tault weather predicting.
For example, say the Weather
Bureau predicts continued sunny
weather for the next three days, you
go ahead and cut your hay. and it
I
rains cats and dogs that night.
You've got a case. Call your lawyer.
He's probably sitting by his phone
waiting.
And there are all sorts of other
possibilities. A rained-out political
rally expected to raise 5300,000 for
some Senator. Snowed-in office
workers who can't get home at
night. Housewives who believed a
forecast and didn't protect their
pot plants the night the tempera
ture went to 25. People washed out
by an unpredicted flood. Thou
sands of school kids threatening to
riot because the school bus couldn't
run and their education was inter
rupted. Etc.
If the government is smart it'll
fight that airline's suit with every
thing it's got. and in the meantime
bond its forecasters against other
damage suits. Some of them I ?
figure would have to put up bonds ..
of at least a billion dollars apiece. > A
Actually of course the suit nttjljl
fail on the grounds that weathef?
forecasting is guessing, and when
the guess turns out wrong it wasn't
the forecaster's fault, it was the
weather's. It changed. Sue it.
You see. there's as much differ-: ^
ence between what a forecaster sayi;
tonight and the weather does
tomorrow as there ? between wh?^ ,
a candidate says in the campaign!^
and does in the office. I have long*
contended that many weather fore- V
casters got their training as sports'
writers predicting football scores.
Your* faithfully,