Journal
A BETTER COUNTY THROUGH IMPROVED FARM PRACTICES
TRENTON, N. C. Thursday, August 6, 1953.
Volume Five,
Number 13
Lenoir Board Votes To
Call School Bond Issue
For $2,OCX),000 Monday
Alter ft joint meeting of the
Board of of Trustees of the Kin
ston Graded School District and
the Lenoir County Board of
Education had agreed upon a
figure of $2,000,000 to be equally
divided between the two sys
tems the Board of Comity Com
missioners Monday afternoon
quickly voted to call .a school
bond issue election on October
Third for this lowered figure.
Originally the city group had
asked for $2,000,000 and the
county for $1,394^000.
The jqlnt meeting of the
school groups followed the read
ing of a telegram from New
York bonding attorneys who M
fesmed the county that It could
not Issue school bonds in ex
cess of $3404,000 which was
about $200,060-lese than the two
boards were asking. Formal
adoption of the $2,000,000 bond
order will be made at a spe
cial meeting of the board on
August nwi to. wxucn au per
sons who are opposed to the'
size of the bond Issue have been
urged and Invited to be heard.
Neither school board specified
what It would do rwlth the
monies furnished it under this
Order, but in previous meetings
the two boards have agreed that
the pressing need in thd city is
0pr a new elementary school in
Northeast idpstoh *Mpb£fe t$.
- • Up#
jtwsafft
cient rooms at L&Grange, Sa
vanah and woodington schools
to complete the consolidation
of the county’s antiquated arid
aggravating Negro school sys
tem. This additional room
space for these three Negro
schools is estimated to cost
$474,000.
In previous meetings city
school officials had pointed to
further needs as 1. A new ele
mentary school in Northwest
Kinston. 2. A new elementary
school in Lincoln City and 3. A
Junior High School.
County school officials had
listed gymtoriums for three Ne
gro schools and gymnasiums for
the seven rural white schools
as the most pressing problems
beyond completion of the Negro
school consolidation program.
County School Board Chair
Bobby Johnson, son of Mr.
and Mrs. Brace Johnson of Pol
locksville route one, this week
is atteiidfoffthe annual forestry
school at Camp Hope in Hay
wood County. Johnson is a
member of the Jones Central
High School Senior 4-H Club
and as one of his club projects
GETS BEKIA'S JOB . * . Sergei
N. Kruglov, 56, snoeeeda U V.
Berta as SnM minister'«! for
eign affOtrs and head of secret
police. Bella laces treason
man Elmer Wooten pointed oat
that the school situation is a
fluid thing, reminding that it
was just a lew years ago that
State school experts had recom
mended the closing of South
wood High School but that now
■ifc ifithe fastest growing of the
sev&rrurghwhlte schools. Woo
*en^poiate** '«rt that he could
not say what would be done
with the funds beyond $474,000
that his board would get if the
bond issue is approved but he
did admit that the gyms were
still probably next in line aft
er the Negro school consoli
dation.
County Attorney Tom White
pointed out that his earlier
opinion had been that the spe
fic use of the school bond money
had to be sqt forth in the ballot
but opinions of the New York
bonding attomies varies with
his and had poitned out that it
is usually deemed better not
to specifiy exact uses of the
money due to the fluidity of the
overall school situation.
Members pf the board of
county commissioners said they
felt that the two million dol
lars was “a little high,” most
of them by about a half million
dollars, but they pointed out
that nobody had appeared in
opposition to the pressure of the
two school boards and other
school and civic groups. Those
who may be opposed to a two
million dollar issue and who
feel that a smaller amount would
be adquate have been urged to
attend the August 17th meeting
at which time they will be giv
en full opportunity to be heard.
Grifton Bloodmobile
Thurman WUIams, chair
man. of the “blood bank” ac
tivities of the Red Cross in the
Grifton area, asks that every
body in that area make nolle
of the fact that the “Blood
mobile” will be in Grifton
from lr until 1p.m. August 10
at which time it will take
blood from volunteers who
want to help in this county
■widle effort. In order that
persons who wish to give Mood
will not have to wait ap
pointment cards are available
in both Grifton drug stores.
Williams pointed out that the
tided for blood in Korea has
now ended, if temporarily,
but the need for blood in tbe
making of gamma globulin
he urges *sv
' Hv* a
Lowest Of All Criminals Is
The Dope Peddler Who
Profits From Such Misery
Police officers look with vary
ing sentiments on law break
ers; amused at the happy drunk,
angered by the nasty traffic
offender who thinks the law
was meant for “other people,”
sickened at the pityful alcohol
ics, frightened of the insane or
near-insane criminals of any
type, contempt for the petty
(racketeer and chisler but for
one group of lawbreakers all
police share a common and
burning emotoion —» hatred of
the dope peddler. ,
Today, although relative
sparseness of Eastern Carolina’s
population does not provide the
happiest climate for this low
est of all criminal types they are
far more in evidence today than
ever before. And as much as
police at every level despise the
dope peddler there is very lit
tle that-can be done to stop this
mounting local problem from
reaching perhaps even the pro
portions it has attained in
more densely populated areas.
Just a few months ago, as
the calendar flies, great nation
al headlines were made by the
Kefauver Committee, as it
spread before the public view
the sordid but immense ram
ifications of this lucrative,
deadly side of crime. Congress
with its ears to. the radio and
its- eye*1 oh«K*Mwiilliiw made
a lot of pompous sounds on the
overall subject of illicit nar
cotics. Yet today, after all of
these headlines, breast-thump
ings and tear-sprinkled oratory
North and South Carolina
share ONE narcotic agent, a
capable man whose job stands
close to that of Atlas, who held
the world upon his shoulders.
In the immediate Kinston area
dope can be obtained, for a
price, within minutes by any
body in “need of a fix.” The
price ranges from two to five
dollars. One can choose his
“dope” but the most used is
heron, the white, crystalline form
of morphine.
Local police Know but not
to the point of proving in court
largely who the “pushers” are.
But to convict a “pusher” he
must be caught with the loot
on his person or premises, or
someone who has purchased a
“fix” must be willing to go into
court and testify to the pur
chase and usually two such wit
nesses are required.
The difficulty of getting ei
ther of these prerequisites to
conviction is easy to understand
when it is recognized that en
ough heron to put half a hun
dred people to sleep can be
held in a hollow pencil, a shoe
heel, rolled up in the hairdo of
a woman, hidden in a cigarette
pack or, as has been done on
many occasions—hidden in the
openings of the body.
The only way of catching a
“pusher” with the goods is to
have an advance tip as to the
hiding place and then speed and
luck must combine to catch him,
or her before the hiding place
is changed or the "white stuff”
is disposed of.
The most frequent method of
convicting the dope peddler is
by catching an addict who is
badly in-"need of a fix” and then
bribing him or her with dope
and a promise of a cure if they
will testify against the person
from whom they buy their
“fix.” Here again the necessi
ty of having at least two per
sons to testify, or having pic
torial evidence of the iactual
purchase complicate this metb
The first person to identify the
corner in the abovia photograph
which was taken more than 50
years ago in Kinston wil be giv
en a one-year subscription fttec
to this paper. Study it closely
for there is a very good indi
cation of which corner it is and
it is not too difficult to identify.
(Picture courtey FraJnk La
Roque).
od and completely eliminate
the local law enforcement offi
cer who cannot obtain dope to
“bribe” addicts and who do not
have the authority to promise
a “cure” to the addict.
Special training, familanty
with every respect of the dope
traffic, the ability to recognize
4h adglct, the facility of acquir
ing the friendship of such'suf
ferers, plenty of time to devel
op a case or series of cases and
access to supplies of the “white
stuff” are some of the things
that the narcotics agent must
have and are things that the
local cop does not have due to
the degree of specialization
need to fight this particular
criminal activty.
The immense profits, the rel
atively light sentences, difficulty
of detection and just plain
commonness combine to get the
non-addict in the business. The
addict is there because he needs
ready access to relatively easy
money in order to afford the
terrible price of addiction which
runs as high as $10 to $50 a
day.
In and around Kinston are a
known few men and women who
are engaging in this awful prac
tice. The supply of customers
is not large, fortunately. A few
prostitutes are kept “hopped up”
by their “gentlemen friends”
who occasionaly gross as much
as $150 on a weekend from one
or two of these pitiful women,
some of whom are so doped they
hardly know where they are.
A few “regulars” and occa
sionally a new addict will crop
up; usually a person who has
had a painful illness or injury
and got use to the relief of
morphine and upon recovery
from his illness or injury finds
it almost impossible to foresake
the “needle.”
The list of known addicts in
and around Kinston is relatively
small, but it is not due to any
shortage of dope. Many of the
more prominent characters in
the business graduated upward
or downward from bootlegging
whisky and women into this, the
lowest of all the criminal pro
fessions.
Perhaps the biggest reason the
average cop hates this low breed
so badly is because they are the
hardest to catch, most difficult
to convict and get off the eas
iest in court and because, all
to frequently, the few that are
caught are just the riff-raff of
the dope traffic and the high
er-ups are seldom caught.
It is a pity, indeed that such
.
baseless people can walk the
earth and breathe the air of
freedom. The death penalty
for the dope-pedidler-for-prof
it would not be to severe.
Summer Camp For
41 Jones 4-H’ers
Assistant Farm Agent William
Shackelford reported that 41
Jones County 4-H Club members
have signed up and will at
tend the annual summer en
campment which is being held
for the first time this year at
Camp Milstone near Rocking
ham.
Shackelford says the group
will leave by car from Tren
ton on August 17th and return
on the 22nd. A full week of rec
reation, entertainment and oc
casional bits of education are
planned for the Jones group.
North /Carolina* will harvest
a 1953 rye crop of aproximately
270,000 bushels, some 45,000
bushels more than the 1952
harvest, but 33,000 bushels less
than the 1942-51 average.
Mrs. Clyde Banks, well known
Jones County Home Demonstra
tion Club woman, is scheduled
to Ieare by plane from Raleigh
on Sunday for Toronto, Canda,
where she will he one of the
North Carolina delegates to the
international meeting there of
Home Demonstration Club wo
men. (Polaroid Photo-ln-a-min
ute by Jack Rider.)