Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / Dec. 24, 1959, edition 1 / Page 2
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Sidewalk Santa Season Is Here 'hese Editorials Are The Opinion Of One Man, -— :~T~" —I—-. And Me May Be Wrong. Waver IFmmt. The Chris SfjpJwiv lftt This year, more than any in the memory of this writer, the leader of our world seem to be working harder and more in telligently for peace than at anytime in our life. -;:0 The Life of Christ, and) the stories tpld after it haive many lessons, but none of these is stronger nor more often repeated than the lesson of peace. As a soldier in World' War II if puzzled us greatly and worried us just a little to hear chaplains pray for victory. The invoking.of the name of Christ in battle seemed tbeo, and still seems to be a mockery, or an a buse of everything Christ stood for. Of course, winning a battle, or a game as Jim Tatum said, “is everything”. No one wants to lose, no matter what the stake may be, but winning in a crap game or in a war seem, to us, have just this much in com mon: Nothing to jdoKwMh -Qlrist or religion. So if, as we suppose, our leaders, and the leaders of otbeir nations in the world are seriously trying to find the path to a lasting peace with justice and freedom Christianity is not a failure, but is the success of successes. Mankind’s search for freedom and peace is odder than recorded history. Perhaps the search is near its end. We hope so. Is Crying A Habit? In Kinston currently there is a Jot^—in fact, too damned much blues singing. To hear a few sad sacks along the Btoin stem talk you’d think we might as well roll up the sidewalks and throw in the sponge. There is nothing tangible to sup port such pessimism. Sales volume is up—at least through October which Saiw $76,356.44 collected in sales tax by Kinston merchants as com pared to $69,396.06 for October 1956. That’s roughly 10 per cent more. Sure, there are some merchants who are hurting, but pick a day when there A lot of people got in, the retail trade dur ing the past 20 years and never knew what “good old American competition” wlas like. The period at their business experience be gan with the war boojm when all a fellow bad to do to be a merchant was rent a building and put merchandise in it. Today there is a surplus of goods. Now the retailer has to really sharpen Ms pen cil, Ms wits and his inventory. The good merchants are doing more business, and that is as it should be. The any babies are behind the eight ball, gad that is as it every was. . What Is The Answer? Education, Enforcement, Engineering . . . Those are .the three “E’s” talked of so much when traffic, safety is the subject. Then along comes a ^moron—and there seems to be a suiptaa—who hits a speed clock at better than 90 miles an hour, tries to escape the patrol at speeds over 100 miles an hour, crashing heavily travelled inter sections, roaring into tottn and across more dangerous intersections finally to be caught after he picked a deadend street and ran a way from Us car. :‘v kind of stupidity, and a person with that hind of intelligence certainly cannot be Otoe police or patrol officer ©an only ap prehend and then it becomes the heavy duty of ftp courts to punish. Judges must make the choice between be ing too lament or too severe. Jf they are too severe juries will general ly overturn their severetiea., , X .they are too lenient some drivers will take advantage of the leniency and tliepub ljc will suffer the consequences. a serious vtolatton, Ito full test of being ‘Full Speed Ahead’ meat over the present mess. So many years,of special privilege and selfish mistakes are now written in the federal tax- taws that it would be a major miracle to waive even the most magic legis lative wand and suddenly dear the air. Christian Science Monitor Business Editor Nate White Saturday put the situation in one exceedingly long sentence: “On one point only do all the ‘experts’ a gree: the basic tax law as it stands today is not bate need nor is it wholly just; it is a compromise, a complex of special con tradicting interests; it slWs economic growth in some of its provisions; it is bur densome and heavy and bard to interpret; it provides too many loopholes; it permits large-scale erosion of the tax base; it falls heavily on the salaried worker and en courages tax evasion of large groups through legal gadgetry; it disregards the growing heavy burden on individuals and businesses of local taxation, that is the tax needs of states, townships and communi ties.” White declares, “What is one man’s equi ty is a ‘loophole’ to another. The United States tax tew is a wild complex of spe cial interest exemptions.” White reminds that it is of equal im portance to the future of our nation that at the same time inequities are erased from Why Not Luther? Both major political parties seem to have a sufficiency of eager young men who are willing to seek the presidency, but .each is plagued with a scarcity of vice presidential hopefuls. Although he has not formally said so, North Carolina’s Governor Luther Hodges is quietly planning for a grab at the second the Democratic Party Udder, and ‘Why not?” . .. rj > ,'J in bis right political mind* knows a Southerner cannot be nominated for presi dent injeither party because of the minori ty controls that prostitute Democrats and RepuhUoaus alike. So if the South is elim inated from a crack at the top spot, there is no intelligent reason why we should run from the job that is “only a heart beat a way from the presidency.” Hodges has not been North Carolina’s worst governor by a long shot. He has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way be cause he! is impatient and wants to get things done. With a big business back ground be has wanted results, not promises and he has gotten a good many results. As to his qualifications for vice presi dent, or even the presidency; they may not be the very best, but neither are they the sorriest. Hodges is keenly intelligent, some times alarmingly well informed, energetic and ambitious. Hodges is also sufficiently well-to-do so no rich “underwriters” would be needed to pay bis rent in Washington as was done for “Tricky Dicky” Nixon. Hodges has bee® lucky enough on the explosive racial issue to be acceptable to the socialists who con trol the labor movement and to such a large degree control the Democratic Party. referred to above who already had lost his' driving license for ji previous violation de serves a prison term, and if this kind of editorial prejudices his rights in court we make no apology, and will print no re tractions for our concern is with the hun dreds of thousands of drivers who try- to drive • sensibly and safely and whose fives are in constant peril so long as maniacs of |||| —-.... JOURNAL fOOKR. ruausner Every Thursday by The Lenoir News Company, Inc., 403 West Ave., Kinston, N. 0., Phone MIS. — M Second Class. Matter May 5, 1949. at the Post Office at Trenton. North Carolina, under 't»e Act of March 3, 1876. y Mail in first Spne-M-OO Per Year, .ubacrtption Rates Payable ta Advance easy fbr him to qualify a few well placed lies when his income tax return is being made. ' Collect equitably from everyone, and spend carefully for everythin* is a perfect prescription for good government. PERSONAL PARAGRAPHS 'BY l_JACK RIDER In a year that has been infamous for its publicity over fixed quiz sbawson television, bougbten song hits from radio and cheating butchers, aldermen and contractors in New York it seems fairly fitting that Kinston’s year should end in a bitter wrangle between its merchants over whether to open for busi ness on December 26th. Some 44 businesses in the downtown area have signed a cooperative ad in the local papers announcing their decision to be dosed the day after Christmas to give their employees and themselves an op portunity to be with their families. Left open, or at least unannounced will be the major chain stores and a few of the biggest department stores. About all I can add to this is, whatever they do it’s their own damned business. The chain stores say they have to do like the home office tells them. The local mer chants don’t like this home-office decision any more than they like most <jf the things done by the chain stores. -n l it .. But conformity is almost an . un-Ameri can word. America was founded j»y the non conformists. The fellow who didn’t like what the king or the state religion said do packed his obstinacies, his family and came thousands of miles across uncharted seas to a wilderness. It is a paradox of the sea son that many of those earliest settlers— including all of the iNew Englanders—were violently opposed to any celebration of Christ’s Birthday anniversary, as practiced in the Anglican Church. But of course, the Puritans Were opposed to nearly everything. They burned witches, jailed frivolous men, banned drinking and made such a mess of religion in general that they drove a big part of the population from the church. This brings us around to the “Blue Law” question. Any law that attempts to force a “Sabbath” upon another is a blatant in fringement of the guaranteed religious freedom that we all refer to so frequently in.our Constitution. Religious freedom is also the right to have no religion, and if a fellow with a different religion or no religion decides that he wants to keep his business open on Sun day and close it on Tuesday—that is HIS business and no damned body else’s—H you’ll pardon the profanity. And this business of being closed the day after Christmas falls into exactly the same category. There’s nothing wrong with one group. opening for business and *1 equally there is nothin? ^ f ' »—-<■« ' ■ ■' —
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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Dec. 24, 1959, edition 1
2
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