Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / June 4, 1953, edition 1 / Page 4
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Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Opinion* O^One Man. And He Map Be Wrong. T^r US TO b Really Some Highway Those of us who ride up and down the local segments of Highway 70 are hugely -ignorant of lust what kind of have by the tail. Much to our surprise wl have found recently that Old “70” extends from Atlantic, N. 0., to Long Beach, California, which is some Httte extending. Out'West where men are men and high ways are much more publicised than to this trafic-laden east Old “70” is the “Treasure Trail” and a full-fledged or ^gaizatlon with Salford, Arizona, as KMdfeiariSfcrs, is set up to preach the glo ries, sights and enticements that make “The Treasure Trail” the right road from tlie Atlantic to the Pacific. Old “70” which starts down the banks of Core Sound at Atlantic here in Fair Tar Heella, stretches across the conti nent through Tennessee, Arkansas, Ok lahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California to the sandy shores of Long' Beach. In Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California a strong and active promotion is given to US 70 and currently efforts are being made to entice Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Carolin^ to Join In singing the praises of this considerable piece of hardsurfaced road way. Among the principal cities located an this coast-tp-coast artery are Knoxville, Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee, Little Rock and Not Springs in Arkan sas, Durant in Oklahoma; Vernon and Plainview in Texas; Clovis, Alamogordo and Las Cruces in New Mexico; Phoenix and even Salome (where she danced) In Arizona, and Los Angeles in California. Certainly we feel that some press ag gentry from the North Carolina angle should be turned loose on such a vast subject. Hie circular we received from the Highway 70 Association reminds that tourists are now spending money at the fantastic rate of a BILLION dol lars a month. Certajply no state along “70” can offer so much to the tourist as North Carolina and we’d like to hear a little louder horn-tooting, about it from the folks who are in the official business of blowing such horns. A Realistic Approach ,to Auto Insurance An Increasing interest in being exhib ited by most of us in automobile insur ance. No doubt a large part of this in creasing interest comes from the in creasing rates that most bf us have to pay to get the family flivver protected from the possibilities of litigation and other equally painful accidents. In the May issue of The American Magazine an article on the “High Cost of Auto Insurance: What You Can Do About It”, is not only enlightening read ing, but is also alarming when one finds that the same insurance that costs a New Yorker $395 only costs a man in Nebraska $25. The reason is simple: More accidents in Newi York, higher re pair costs in New York, larger damage awards by New York juries. That is a simple statement of fact. It is a fair practice and the insurance confides ought not to suffer criticism for this particular aspect of their pro gram. It is certainly logical to charge more in an area where insurance has to pay off more money. But in that simple and fair, formula one finds basis for wondering if the in surance company might not go the next logical step by charging the Individual MOKE ■who costs them more? At present there are just two groups! of people Insofar as paying auto policy premiums Is concerned: Those undier and those over 25 years of *age. Could not the noble inlnd of man, with perhaps the help of a couple of these modern electronic mathematicians devise a premium schedule that took In to consideration the accident rate, not only of an area but of an individual. In Eastern Carolina, for Instance, a higher rate is charged due to the large number of service men. who charge up and down the highways on two-day passes and a sudden desire to go to Boston or Birmingham. We believe it practical and possible that policy costs reflect the cost of the policy holder to the insurance company. It is certainly unfair to charge two drivers an identical rate when one has driven 10 years without an accident and the other may have had a dozen fender bendings in the same period. Of course, we just got a notice that the insuransce rate on our flivver had gone up by about 40 per cent. More On School Gym Week before last we had a word or two in this space on the specific subject of the City Schools charging the Kinston Recreation Department for use of its gyms. We did not say that the Rec reation Department had been charged in the past, but we did say that the Rec reation Director has asked for monies in the 1953-54 department budget to take care of rentals in the future since he had been told that a $25-per-night rental would be charged in the future. This item got School Man Frank Mock hot around the collar, because he says that school officials did not tell Recrea tion Director Bill Fay that a charge would be made for use of the gyms for regular departmental games. Mock say^ that the $25-per-night charge was meant to only cover those post-season games which involve out-of-town teams in tour naments. It has been admitted that Director Fay misunderstood the answer he was given on that specific subject and accepted the $25-per-night rental as applying to all games. From what Fay, Mock and others involved in this conversation have told us we feel that we now understand the basis for this misunderstanding and we aye sorry that we have rubbed Mock, and possibly other school officials the wrong way. We still feel, however, that a sufficient amount of money should be asked by the school officials from the County Board of Commissioners to cover the entire oper ation of the fine gymnasiums now avail able at Grainger and Adkln High Schools. To have such fine buildings and not re quest sufficient operating funds to pre vent charges for ANY games in which children of Lenoir County participate is rather like buying a mule and getting Just enough rooney to feed the mule while he Is “officially” at work. The children who play in the gym when it is under Recreation Department supervision are the children who are al ready playing or who will soon be playing on the high school teams. The two rec reational programs supplemented and complimented each other, but of the two, we deem the less commercialized Recreation Department program as far better. The attitude of some school officials, at every level, that athletics must pay their own way is not only absurd but in a most direct sense may very well lay the ground work for the kind of scan dals we have Seen in recent years in col lege sports, where money has crept in and ruined young men for. life because since their high school days they have been working for “the gate.’ Recreation is not a stepchild of the educational system but it has surely been treated as one for much too many years. It’s fairly difficult to reconcile com pletely the conflicting facts of air life as offered by the United States Air Force. They first complain of the in adequacy of their planes when they are seeking more money and then in story after story they brag about how the Sa bre Jet is 8 to 1 better than the best thing the Russians have built. Guess it depends on whether they are asking or giving. The books prove that women are safe1 drivers than men. They ought to- be They know something about the diffi culty of bringing a life into the world and should have greater cares about suddenly endng a ll'fe with a gasoline buggy. ^ We had a paragraph here a week of so ago about the sideyard of Doug Bak er’s Farkyiew Superette and now " we want everybody to know that Doug has cleaned up this eye-sore .and has had built a handsome looking fenced-in area to keep his trashcans and empty pop bottles. We’ve always heard that a word to the wise is sufficient. It was none of our business, but we specialize In minding other folks’ business any way and do believe that It will more than repay Baker what it cost him not only in the Improved appearance of his store, but also in keeping a lot of pop bottles from being stolen. “Business Week” which can hardly be charged with leanings toward the Dem ocratic Party points out that “Eisen hower and Company are out of step. You might as Well face it now and begin to figure what the result may be next year when the Congressional elections roll around again. Businessmen have a big stake in haw it goes.’ See where Du Pont President Craw ford Greenwalt had a big pay cut last year. Before you cry too much in your beer let it be known that his pay drop was from $519,600 down to $503,290. That ought to be eough to keep him in short beers and hot dogs, if he watches things carefully. . The Raleigh News and Observer, a great “liberal” newspaper, it would have the world believe, has made consider able ado over the consolidation of the Negro and White congregations at New ton Orove Catholic Church. The Bible we have contains no reference to a spe cial heaven for.white, black, yellow or red people. A good bit.of the time of some seg ments of American life is spent In wild est, conjecture about.what part the Duke of Windsor and his Duchess will play under the rule of Elizabeth ZL It may shock and perhaps madden these ele ments to learn that the English don’t miss Edward. The City-County budgetary request for the local library' has climbed from $15, 000 last year to $26,204, nearly a 100 per cent climb but one we are heartily In fa vor of being grafted. But there is one aspect to the library situation that we do not- like. That Is' the budgeting of equal amounts for the library by the city and county governments. Simply put It Is this: If the city agrees to put up, as It has in the past, an amount equal to that appropriated by the county then the people who live In the corporate lim its of Kinston and who pay 54 per cent of the overall county taxes will pay $20, 177.08 of this $26,204 appropriation, which is 77 per cent of the entire appropria tion and less than 38 per cent of the people in the county live inside the cor porate limits of Kinston. This is a coun ty project and should be supported en tirely by county funds. This is double taxation in its worst form. Did you read about the Baptist Church down in South Carolina vigorously fight ing the construction of a city swimming pool? That seems to us to be a peculiar attitude for a group that is dedicated to “total immersion.” JONES JOURNAL JACK RIDER, Publisher MURIEL RIDER, Business Manager Published Every Thursday by The Lenoir County News Company, Inc., 403 West Vernon, Ave., Kinston, N. C., Phone 5415. Entered as Second Class Matter May 5, 1049,. at the Post Office at. Trenton, North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, 1879. Bv Mall in First Zone—$3.00 Per Tear. Subscription Rates Payable in Advance Some times I’m a little amused and at other times I get hot around (he col lar along with some my local friends on the exceedingly sore subject of “chain stores.” I am not one of the people who “hate” chain stores for they are only one more aspect of “Free Enterprise” and although I may sound a little like a socialist at times, I still firmly bellere that our competitive system U the best ever tried. ' ’? - One of the sorest subject of recent date around here Is Sears, Roebuck and their all out competitive thrusts since they hung out their klng-slaed shingle In Kinston. First thing they did that was not calculated to win friends among the Merchants Association' was stay open on the traditional Wednesday afternoon half holidays that business owners and clerks enjoy so much. Then to add fur ther . insult to this injury Sears began staying open at night several time* a month: . This night-opening was not such a tremendous Imposition on 6ear,s -*m~ ployees since they only work 40 hours a week—another sore subject that has caused many clerks to look longlngly in that direction when they contemplate, the hours they make in locally owned shops. These two breaks in the work hour front which were'fiAuik by Sears antagonized a good many people but that was a small irritation compared, to that most downtown merchants suf fered when Sears started sending Its clerks out to “shop” competitive' stores. That was really what pulled the cork out of the Jug and in this matter rm more than Inclined to agree with the local merchants who don’t like this kind of snooping and don’t mind say ing so. 1 know very well that I would n’t want George Wells to come down to our joint and find opt how much I charge for a particular kind of print ing. And I doubt that George would competing businesses and are often asked to old on the same printing or ders, but we don't prepare our bids by going and asking the other what he charges for that sort of work. In the first place it would be stupid. For I would do just aS focal merchants have started doing the Sears shoppers. Tell them anything but the right price. Sears had been taking a sampling of lo cal prices, say on a refrigerator and then it would run a big ad selling its re frigerators at a few bucks less than the going price around town. No doubt these Sears'shoppers are collecting the biggest supply of misinformation ever accumulated locally, because most mer chants know them on sight now and start rigging their prices the minute they start asking questions. One merchant complained aloud when Sears started calling him for cred it ratings on people. This merchant said, and I quote, “Let ’em learn the bad ones just like I did. The hard way.” Of course, what local merchants are being treated to In their dealings with Bears is a big dose of that old rugged “com petitive marketing” that has made Sears the second biggest retailer in the nation1. Ranking behind A&P. One of my friends was wondering the other day why Kinston has lost three wholesale houses during the past year, and as usual, I knew the answer. (Any thing you don’t know the answer to^ just ask the first newspaperman you come across. He’ll give you an answer, but don't go bet your house rent on it.) My answer on the cause of whole sale closings of local wholesale hoi is that “limes are too good now.” Everybody, In one way or another can manage to scrap up a little cash money now, but it has not been so many years ago when this was not the case and then groceries had. to be bought from the man who “would trust you HE Saturday or ’the first of the month.' (Continued on Page S)
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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June 4, 1953, edition 1
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