—r
rmmm
BY
JACK RIDER
Recently It seems that Kinston and Le
noir County have had much more than
■ their fair/share of trouble with Marines.
People are beginning to grumble on street
comers, police are concerned and to a de
gree. I am toe. But Just as iq most other
situations there is two side'to this one.
There1 ^ ho point in recounJingeVen a
partial list of the recent serious crimes
Committed, or allegedly committed in this
area by Marines.'If one keeps up-with local
aeWs he is already' aware of this part of
the picture.
Marine authorities with whom I have
talked are just as unhappy, if not more so
about this situation than local officiate.
They point to their part of the problem and
insist that it is not all their fadlt, and here
is at least onfe side of their argument.
‘Jhe uncertain draft board status of teen
agers forces a great many bpys in tlfese
troublesome' years to get into mischief.
They find it difficult to get a jobwitb em
ployers remembering that said teenager
may be tapped on the shoulder any day
by the draft board. They develop a don’t
give-a-damn attitude, which often finds
them in trouble with the law.
Here is where the Marine "Corps and
ether branches of the armed forces enter
an objection. They say that these teenagers
who get into trouble are all too frequently
permitted to “join,up” and clear them
selves of the minor trouble they are in
with the old home town police.
In many metropolitan areas this prac
tice is the rSlb if the teenager can meet the
physical requirements for service duty.
These boys are already a disciplinary prob
lem, the Marine officials point out. They
comfe 4Ro the aimed forces with a chip on
their shoulder. Of eourse,- disciplining them
bJItf th^y^Se* hri the military reservation
is a problem, but it is a minor problem to
curbing their rebellious attitude when they
are off the base. The strict imposition of
military authority upon a youth who has
never known* any kind of discipline before
is in itself a severe test to any young man’s
character, even if his pre-sendee record is
as white as the driven snow.
Marine official? poir.; to the obviousness
cf the fact that they cannot restrict the en
tire Corps for the wrongs of a tiny frac
tion of their number. To do this would
ere:i‘e a general Rebellion,, and to restrict
juri'; those boys who might be expected to
cause trouble outside would be compound
ing the social fracture which has already
made these bpys potential law breakers.
As an ex-service plan who understands
something of the pressures and lack of
pressures which generate a large part of
civilian troubles with the men in service, I
tender one or two respectful suggestions:
_-2__ #V
No.' 1, Overnight passes ought to auto
matically carry a curfew of say midnight,
permitting military police and civilian police
to revoke the pass of any violators.
No. 2, Passes of short duration to any
town except the home town of the indi
vidual ought to include as one requisite the
wearing of the full uniform. This has many
points to recommend it:
\ Permitting easier identification, creating
pride of the uniform and the service and
not the least it would lessen the risk that
civilians might be inclined to take.
jf people works more
S^er in sloppy dress
ce than upon the neat,
on pspe 5
'O' •"
• v
This would b'e a protection for the ser
vice man equal to the protection it would
givft civilians. Around the perimeter of every
military - reservation there is always a
rabble of prostitutes, gamblers, bootleggers,
narcotic runners and every day grafters
who make a shady and sometimes fat pro
'Stick Around... We May, Keed.Ypu Yeti
' EXPLODES
fmprnm
STAND*..* tui
Distributed by King Features Syndicate
‘ ^ 1 ‘ .- - And He May Be Wrong,
" jp ■ " n - 1
farm Program Changes
During the holiday peri, ad when farming
operations in most Eastern Carolina areas
are at a standstill serious study should be
made by each farmer of the changes now
made in the federal fanm program.
Of particular interest to the small farmer
is the fact that there is no limit on the
amount of acres he can put in the soil bank
of any of the allotted crops. There is a
maximum, however, that any one farm can
receive. That is $3,000.
If a farmer has, for example, eight acres
of tobacco, five acres of cotton and 20 acres
of corn allotted to his farm and his soil
bank payment rates were about the average
for Jones County his soil bank check would
be approximately $2,978 if he were to put
the whole shooting match in the soil bank.
This will be a mighty attractive proposi
tion to many small farmers, in spite of the
fact that outside employment is scarce and
the present chances of off-the-farm .em
ployment are the worst in 20 years.
The obvious intent of this program is to
take entire farms out of production of these
supported crops which are in surplus sup
ply at present.
There are many other aspects of this
changed program which the individual farm-'
er ought to apply to his own situation in
telligently so that he may make the best
possible decision for his own best interest.
Those better class,small farms, of which
Jones County has a large and growing
number have a number of opportunities
presented with this “total soil bank idea”.
Putting all of these allotted crap acres in
the soil bank, and retiring them from any
kind of commercial production will gen
erally leave considerable additional acreage
that can still be used comanerciaBy but not,
of course, in the specified crops.
The fanm with an established pasture
program may accelerate its meat or milk
production. The farm without the pasture
program may turn to a combination of
small grain and poultry production, re
membering, we trust to put the grain be
fore the poultry. Going into any phase of
meat production—beef, pork or pdullry—
is foolish to a bankrupting degree if one
enters it with any notion of making money
with boughten feed.
The biggest single advantage that this
changed program affords the small fanner
is that it is an opportunity to experiment
without jeopardizing completely the cash
income of the farm. '
These are just a few thoughts from a
desk farmer on the kind of thinking that
farmers—small farmers in particular, of the
]pnd Jones County has a large percentage,
ought to foe doing in this lull before the
farming season goes into high gear.
Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin
Some more religious than us may feel it
a trifle wrong to use.Biblical quotations in
connection with such wordly things, as the
current farming cmtlook for Eastern Caro
lina. Let us hasten to explain that our use
of the handwriting , on the wall, is more to
catch the reader’s eye than from any real
or imagined connection between the King
dom of Belshazzar and tobacco.
However, Ion those who can read and in
terpret the handwriting is surely on the
wall insofar as tobacco is concerned, and
although we do not suggest for one min
ute that our interpretation is the correct
one, we do feel 3 to be based in some logic.
Using Lenoir County as an example, ab
sorb the following hard facts:
In 1851 tobacco income hit the all-time
high for Lenoir County farmers 'with
$17,904,040 income frion that source. Last
year the figure sagged with a great drop
ip price to $17,568,947, in spite of a big in
crease in pounds sold.
This year the drop ia more, pronounced
in spite of an increase to prtec. Both poundB
and dollars dropped and dofflar-wise die
final picture is $13,338,286.52, tfeil over a
four-million dollar drop in the tobacco in
Ike's Second Invasion
President Bisenhotarer’s second invasion
cf Europe is far different from that ot June
6, 1M1 when l» *M Gee«»l Eisenhower.
Then the situation was military, today it is
political and although we hope him the very
best ftricthere cannot be denied the' vast
gulf between what is practical and possible
In one situation as compared with the other.
As General Eisenhower, Ike was Supreme
Allied Commander. His wish coafld not be
contradicted 'by anyone of the millions of
men of leaser rank beneath him.
As President Eisenhower, Ike is stilt su
preme commander in one military sense,
but today military forces are an implied
rather than an actual ingredient in. con
siderations of policy. ’ ,
In 1944 Europe was prostrate from five
years of the most terrible war so fa* re
corded. The tramp of German boots had
been heard from the gates of Moscow to the
chalk cliffs of Dover. European politkans
knew only one word: Help!
Today some of those same helpless Euro
pean politicans are aking much more than
“HMp”.-They still want help, but on their
terms. Backed by recent Soviet scientific
successes and their natural wily disposi
tion these Western European politicans are
seeking, and succeeding in pls|ying the
naivety of the United States against the
blindness of Russian plans.
We bet “Ike” would like tW be back in
uniform and giving orders again.
The Babcock Plan
The current effort to take the highways;
of North Carolina out of “politics” has suc
ceeded in one sense, in that it has taken the
highway building program out of Eastern
North Carolina.
Present plans call for the state spending
practically all of its highway funds to
match federal funds for these huge, ex
pensive military roadls that are eating up
land, money and patience with alarming,
rapidity.
Highway Boss Bill Babcock; recently told
a Charlotte gathering that the commission
was “broke” and would have no money for
secondard road work, Snd toddy any road
not on this monstrous super-highway pro- -
gram' is a secondary road.
These highways in addition to being un
imaginably expensive to build may very
well cost the state millions of dollars of
business each year from now on. A narrow
state such as North Carolina, across which
millions of tourists travel every year will
inevitably lose money when these limited
access monsters permit tourists to
dash suddenly across the state.
Tourist accomodations are one of North
Carolina’s biggest businesses, and they
will, and already have lost millions of dolr
lars of revenue because of this mania that
has bankrupted the highway commission
and thrown our overall state highway net
work in the ash can.
People had better become alarmed and
insist on putting some politics back in the
highway commission.
Fire is an extraordinary hazard in the
Christmas Season. Make sure that your
Christpias is not ruined or your life de
troyed from carelessness with fire. -
Over the holiday season, and at every
other time of the year please apply one logic
to driving: If you must drink, don’t drive;
and you must drive don’t drink!
come of the farmers of Lenoir County
alone.
This same story is true all over Tobacco
land, U. S. A. This drop in the face of in
creased tobacco consumption cannot mean
anything good for the -tobacco farmer.
Plans had, better be made ,by the tobacco
farmer if he wishes to remain a farmer.
JONES JOURNAL
.Every Thursday by The Lew
Company, Inc., 403 W<
Ave., Kinston, N. C., Phone 54]
?d'as Second Class Matter May 5,
at .the Post Office at Trenton.
Carolina, under the Act of March
9.
all in First Zone—$3.00 Per Sear,
rtptton Rates, Payable In Advance