The Pretty Milkmaid I* Too Ditto
Never Forget That That* Editorials Are The Opinions Of One Man,
——-v"'.| r-\ ----\-;— And He Map Biff Wron^g,
niversary Issue LITE magazine has an ed_
itorlal that ought lo.be read by every
thinking American. It might help even
^ those who are. not capable of thinking.
In admitting and standing up for the
notion that “conformity” la about the
worse thing that could possibly happen to
_ the United States, UFB sounds a warning
that many of us have disrtgraded too,
often.
the present intellectual climate of our
I mttntry, In whtahinaijiy muddling factors
hive caused a “War” panic to sweep the
country cannot be dissolved until and
unless those in a position to speak out do
Justihat.
If our teachers, preachers, and political
leaders hide their convictions behind a
network of fears then our land is, Indeed,
In a dangerous situation. But if on the
> other hanl our .leaders accept their re
sponsibilities and disregard the fears such
as, “minority rights,” “civil liberties,”
“giillt by association" and many ^hers
tb4t have come to represent, in most In
stances, some selfish means to an equal
ly selfish end; then there cannot be any
riling wrong with our land of a fatal
nature
To use an extremely Isolated Instance,
on the optimistic side, let us take this
paper and these columns where you are
reading now. Nobody has yet caused any
of the words that appear here to be de
lated, altered or amended. We have said.
nht» how, the things we behove, pei-mlt
tihg (HSly decency and sincerity to cen
o* »t»fc w* 1
tc>r ifr tinge* t* weals thw nave come
We have been wrong, and on, acme oc
casions have been right. But on ev_
ery occasion we have been sincere.
■pits paper, and we believe many more,
does not accept anything on the simple
basis that “Sombpdy said so.” The Con
stitution of the United States, of North.
Carolina, the’ Ordinances of the City of
Kinston, The Bible, The Koran, the By..
Laws of Rotary International and the
«Bules of Organized Baseball each and all
are conclusive tans only when thej
form to the patterns of equity i
tegrfty that we have erected for oursel
ves; "• ;
This is not an arrogant attitude, but
purely an American principal; and a prin
ciple that may be parading off into some
Of the dark and forgotten recesses of
history, if all of the “fear” talk one hears
'has any basis in fkct.
In our own crudly carved “Ivory Tower”
we may have climed so high and reached
such a rarlfled atmosphere that we are
“out of touch." But in the circles we tra
vel there seetrs to be no hestancy to cuss
any and everything, including the wea
ther, McCarthy, The Pope of BGme, tide
Baptist State Convention and the neigh*
bor’s barking dog.
Which is, after a fashion, our why of
saying that, perhaps, the sun 1$ still In
the sky and the “Plan «f .Salvation” is
,not altogether out of kilter Even If ft Is
currently fashionable to have “fears.”
Are you afraid? We alnt. .
maybe he got It caught 1q thef lawnmow
conclusions aimed at satisfying the so
ciologists, and, perhaps, the professional
statistician. -
Che sharply contrasting “participating
formulas” used in Jones and Lenoir-Coun
ties $re our foundation for this criticism.
Because of a very wild collection of fig
ures which tend to Indicate that the
“per capita Income,” taxable valuation
and tax levy of Jones County are such
that Jones Is a' ‘poorer” county than Le
noir, we contend, that the/welfarg. con
cept is robbing “Peter Lenoir” to. pay
“Dbul Tnnka "V ' - VV*V
Attempting to orient the wealth or
poverty of one county, one state or one
nation with another simply on the basis
of one pair of contrasting figures is re
dlcuious to the point of insanity, yet we
are doing it every time the budget wheel
turns locglly. ' '
In JOnes County with a total federal
state-county welfare allocation of $158,
14* on tap for the coming fiscal period
(196M9) these weird turnings of the cal
culating machine are asking Jones Coun
ty taxpayers to make the extreme sac
rifice of fraying 8.8 per cent, of that wel
fare department budget.
In other/simplerwordsthe Jones Coun
ty till will be tapped for $14,998 while the
ftdirtas'ak’d'' state poc$et wlll be tapped
for $148440 Which; is idy fool can
good investment
JOnts County
stton beside that Of Le
' W see what it does to your
welfare budget of
Lenoir County tjje federal
, . ...
and. state iContrWutions total .$975,948.
leaving $130,747 te be put up by the Ooun
tyipfJ liii#r.; ; Thls ls, of bourse, a good
investment of Lenoir County doHanrtoo,~
but not negfk. so good as that provided
Jones County. Since in order to get $190
back the Lenoir County taxpayer must
put Up $19.70, whUe his Jones County
cousin gets $100 back for an $6.06 invest
ment. ' . v .v ’ :
because ol
To sum up; Jones Count;
improperly balanced stat
is rated qs*poor county," which it most
certainly is NOT, while Lenoir County
with more payrolls upon yhich specific
figures can be attained is classed as a
“not so poor county.” The living stand
ards, from the average view point, are as
high, or higher in Jones County than In
Lenoir
True, Jones County has n° Harvey Cir
cle, but equally true, and much more im
portant in the final analysis, Jones
ty has no huge slum areas
ard housing and living —**'
Kinston. r
Our business
of this Uttle i
County.
Wish we could.
■
I do my best writing while the linotype
operator is sitting and waiting for the
paper to pop out of my typewriter so on
that basis this shpuld beTrae of my sor
riest efforts. it you have anything ijn
portant to, do, you have my permission
to stop right here and go on to some
thing more interesting. I promise that
you’ll miss very little, if you quit reading
this column at this point.
When you were a kid and a nickel waa
a child-sized fortune, did you ever sit and
look off at the clouds and say to your
self, "If I ever get a pocketful of money,
I’m going to buy some kid all the ice
cream cones he , can eat.” I did. but I
never have and I think I will. Not that
I have a pocketful of mbney, but I do
have enough most of the time to fill up
an average-sized kid with ice cream
cones, X know another kid that I intend
to fill with Cokes. Funny how you put
aside all those Iron-clad resolutions.
so toy its parents. Things were different
when I was a kid. Of course that was
a pretty good while ago. Much longer
than I like to admit most of the time. X
started to hewis School In 1023. Moved
to Harvey School for the 1903-29 term
and then on to Grainger High for the
1929-34 period. That span of years at
Grainger High was during the worst years
of the Cheat Depression.
I don’t marvel at the fact that moreVids
drive $3,000 automobiles to school now
than had $10 bicycles when I was going
to school. Which is fine, I reckon, but
sometimes I wonder if that ain’t start
ing a kid off lust a little too high on the
hog. Of course, I reckon, if I had a pot
full of money, I’d give my three Rolls
Joyces if they asked for ’em. I already
given ’em everything I can afford' and
sometimes a few things I can’t afford.
My feeling afoout my children, however,
is that they get grown and gone so fast
that you just, have a very few years to
spoil ’em, so I’m going to do the very best
job of spoiling 'em that l ean in the time
that I'm allowed. I do believe in some
discipline, however, and still feel that
most juvenile delinquents get fhat way
from not having thdir bottom warmed