Entered at the post office at Elkin, N. C., as
. second-class matter.
C. S. FOSTER President
H. P. LAFFOON Secretery-Treararar
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, PER TEAR
In the State. 91.50 Out of the State, UN
Whatever the cause it is a noble one—
if it serves to fatten our pocket book.
A fellow is never willing to admit that
he is crazy until after he is arrested for
murder.
The day your neighbor buys a new au
tomobile, your old flivver looks ten years old
er than it is.
Some sons are sent to college so they
will be where they'll have to admit there are
some things they don't know.
Anyhow the Supreme Court has been
able to make front page alongside the Holly
wood pictures of movie divorces.
No! A woman doesn't always have the
last word. Usually it is the man. And in
variably it is "yes."
More than likely if we go ahead and
pass an amendment to the constitution, the
Supreme Court will proceed to dress it up in
the raiment of its own decisions.
Considering: An Important
Matter
The national congress this week is con
sidering a farm relief measure that would
set up a $100,000,600 corporation to insure
wheat farmers against the loss of their crops
in bad years, and it is expected later to ex
tend this insurance to cover cotton, corn, to
bacco and other major crops.
Actually this is a form of hedging on
one of the greatest gambles on earth. Each
planting season finds the farmer betting his
money and his toil against conditions over
which he has no control. He gambles on
rain (too little or too much) floods, frost,
hail, drouth, storms, diseases and plant and
animal pests.
Now the government is trying to pro
tect him through,a dual program: against
the hazards of nature and to stabilize both
price and supply, and to provide an "ever
normal granary." This program is as old as
the ages, but heretofore the government has
not been sufficiently interested to pester
about it. Biblical students will remember
that Joseph stored grains during the seven
fat years to feed his people during the sev
en lean years. Even the heathen Chinese
used a similar system to guard against the
dangers of flood and famine.
It is figured that the average farmer
can afford to pay in one-third to two-thirds
of all his wheat yield above normal in good
years and receive grain or cash in bad years
to bring his total returns up to 75 per cent
of the normal yield.
But the farmer is not the only one to
benefit. The consumer will be protected
againsrt too wide fluctuations and in return
for the assurance of full granaries there
should be the willingness to safeguard agri
culture against the disastrous consequences
when the granary overflows.
If the plan can be made to work, and
if there is not the usual inclination to block
it because it is not so written in the consti
tution, then there will be little need for a
repetition of a program of scarcity in order
to keep the farmer's head above the price
level water. Whether the Congress realizes
it or not it is dealing with one of the most
important matters that ever confronted it.
Continue The Rackets
As the deadline for the introduction of
local bills in the present session of the Gen
eral Assembly approached, they were placed
in the hopper at the rate of several hundred
per day, and when the law-making body ad
journs, local communities will find themsel
ves operating under laws that the people
didn t want and had little part in framing.
The majority of these local measures repre
sent the pet peeves either of the representa
tives themselves or of constituents who by
virtue of their influence get the legislator's
ear.
Every county in the state has, at one
time or another, been fretted with issues
that have arisen from the passage of local
bills by the General Assembly, simply be
cause such legislation was asked by local
representatives who found this the easiest
and surest way to cram something down the
throats of the people back home—something
the sponsors knew wouldn't stand the test
of local determination.
h Carolina is in a class by herself
in this sort of undemocratic procedure,
which in many respects l has made the gen
eral tSode and statutes of the State a crazy-
Yet when the Senate committee on con
stitutional amendments came to consider a
means of eliminating this very apparent
fault, it turned the proposal down, and thus
gave license and approval to a brand of
usurpation that has been very much in evi
dence during the presept session of the leg-,
islature. . ..V .
Another amendment weighted with
merit met the same fate: one that proposed
to prohibit legislators filling positions cre
ated by assemblies of which they were mem
bers. And so that old racket of passing bills
to create'jobs ; for the creators will continue
unabated—or at least as long as a long-suf
fering public Will stand for it.
I :
Instead Of A Loaf They Get A
Stone
It is hard to understand and equally
difficult to reconcile the General Assembly's
attitude toward homestead exemptions with
the mandate implied by the passage of a
constitutional j amendment covering that
subject at the November election, and by
the biggest majority ever given to an
amendment in the history of the state.
True, the amendment only provided the
authority for the legislature to exempt
homesteads in the amount of SI,OOO, if in
its collective wisdom it was deemed wise.
It was not obligatory, but it was a form of
relief to the little taxpayer that should not
be denied him. j
The framers and sponsors of the amend
ment did not ask the State to shoot the
works. All they asked was that the legis
lature begin the scale with a S3OO exemp
tion. But instead of half a loaf, they got a
stone.
The legislators seemed willing enough
to provide a S3OO exemption on cash, S3OO on
bonds and mortgages, S3OO on solvent cred
its and S3OO on foreign securities—but there
was no S3OO on homesteads with the sanc
tion of the committee in charge of the rev
enue machinery bill. . As usual those most
able to pay are to be relieved of a part of
their burden, while the common herd must*
continue to pay.
, The reason for this partiality is not
hard to find. The North Carolina Associ
ation of County Commissioners and the
North Carolina League of Municipalities
along with 'other organizations lobbied
against homestead exemptions, but for ob
vious reasons did not pester to oppose these
other inroads on the tax source. The unor
ganized small homeowners were not there
to look after their own interests and appar
ently their elected representatives went to
sleep on their job.
These county and municipal officials
opposed the homestead exemptions because
it meant that it would reduce county and
municipal income to the point where other
tax sources would have to be found. But
that was all fought out during the campaign '
and another amendment was adopted au
thorizing the legislature to dig deeper into
incomes, which if the law-makers had been
amind, could have been made to level the loss
by exemption.
But the legislature did not dig deeper
into incomes and it did not lift any part of
the load from the shoulders of the small
homeowner, With the result that "ability to
pay" continues not to be the yardstick by
which revenue is raised in North Carolina.
A Generous Gesture
That the milk of human kindness con
tinues to flow in the veins of men is eviden
ced by the attitude of North Carolina peo
ple toward Dr. Ralph McDonald who has
been seriously stricken, physically.
Political friend and foe alike have noli
hesitated to express their deepest sympa
thy and bolster their expression with dol r
lars to aid him in his fight against a malig
nant enemy, that happens, this time not to
be political. For it is an open secret that
Dr. McDonald is not prepared, financially,
for his fight against a disease that threatens
to rob the State of a definite asset.
For it is significant that some of the
most violfent critics of Dr. McDonald in the
gubernatorial campaign are now admitting
that although they disagreed with him and
his political'philosophy, the people of North
Carolina are indebted to him in more ways
than one.
Governor Hoey, along with many of his
supporters in the governorship race, have
expressed concern and sympathy for Dr.
McDonald in his plight, and so the charge of
"crawling hypocriey" m the heat of battle
now changes to sympathetic interest in the
presence of the destroyer.
As one prominent Charlotte political
leader who fought Dr. McDonald in the cam
paign, says: "Dr. McDonald fought a swell
fight. He's a square shooter, a good fighter
and is honest. His recovery is more than
a matter of mere politics." That is a fine
tribute to pay to a political enemy, but it is
a tribute that is wholly deserved.
Many members of the State Legislature
directed the state treasurer to divert one
day's pay ($10.00) to the aid of Dr. McDon
ald, and this, too, is a-fine and generous ges
ture.:
Dr. McDonald's serious illness is di
rectly traceable to the strenuous campaign
he waged and the no less strenuous effort he
has made since his defeat to prepare himself
for' a useful life. So far there is little to
stow that* *hat iie stood for in his political
fight has borne fruit—but it will, eventua!-
ly f just as certain as the sunrise.
Rpfl(PPf *
I
WITH THE SICK j
The following patients have
been admitted to the local hospit
al during the past week: Prank
Haynes, State Road; Mrs. Maude
Woodruff, HElkin; Mrs, Thelma
Layell, State Road; Mrs. Vera
Coe, Dobson; Betty Smith, Elkln;
Helen Couch, Elkln; Mrs. Lott
Swaim, Elkln; Raymond Vestal,
Jonesville; Linda Lou Southard,
Elkln; Ray Transou, Elkln; Thur
mond Jenkins, Jonesville; Loan
Edwards, Mount Airy; Mrs. How
ard Hatch, Elkln; Vallie Vanhoy,
Boonville: Mrs. T. A. Leeper, El
kln; Clyde Tulbert. Elkln; Paye
Taylor, Smithport: Jack Hokomb,
Jonesville; John Roberts, Ronda;
Alex Bedwell, Piney Creek; Mrs.
Leona Macey, Jonesville; James
Young, Elkln; Wesley Benge, El
kln; Hubert Hawks. Mount Airy;
Chauncey Wishon, Boonville;
Ralph Smith, Boonville; Albert
Holcomb, Boonville.
Patients dismissed during the
week were: Mrs. Leona Luff man,
Ronda; Mrs. Carl Polger, Dobson;
Mrs. J. O. Abernethy, Elkln; Mrs.
Silas Nichols, Elkln; Cynthia Al
len, Elkln; Mrs. Martha Day,
Jonesville; Lorraine Lineberry,
Jonesville; Walter Combs, Elkln;
Linda Lou ■ Southard, Elkln; Ray
Transou, Elktn; Thurmond Jen
kins, Jonesville; Jack Holcomb,
Jonesville; Mrs. Mayno Rogers,
Elkln; Mrs. Mamie Coe Dobson
and Mrs. W. A. Darnell, Elkin.
Human beings speak lightly of
the troubles of others. You see
nothing is really important unless
it happens to us.
The gent who is out of tune
with the times Is usually a tenor
who sings through his nose.
' • 4\ ~ .
ADVERTISE
h The
ELKIN
TRIBUNE
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IF YOUR MESSAGE WAS IN THIS SPACE,
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Thursday, March 18, 1987