Newspapers / Jones County Journal (Trenton, … / June 15, 1961, edition 1 / Page 2
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The Sky's the EDITORIALS Never Forget That These Editorials Are The Of inion Of One Ma~ ' 1 ---And He May Be Wrong. Is There A Way? Many of us iwbo are concerned with the image of our nation in the eyes of the (world are asking; Is There A Way to re gain the world esteem we held ini 1945? - Our nation, goodness knows, is trying hard, but with small success to win friends in this battle for the minds of men. Where have we failed? What are we leaving un done that ought to be done? What are we doing that ought not to be done. Each of us who helps foot the bill of this effort is eligible to suggest answers to some, or to all of these most baisic ques tions. ■' •; , We feel There Is A Way. Our failure has been in permitting the Soviets to steal for themselves the role of the revolutionary. The Russians have nothing new. State ownership is a& old as history—eves older. Every fOrm of dicta torship from the first tribal club-wielder up to and including our current crop of table thumpers has “known what was best for his people.” We have tried to convey Ms idea to the “undecided,nations” but we have relied upon the wrong tods. Firstly, so very few of the people in either the decided or un decided nations of the world really have any intelligent appreciation of what free speech or free press really mean. When they see a headline. or hear a broadcast they are not impressed. Goebbels reduced both these media to their lowest Common levels. If our country were to select those basic nations with whom we most pressingly need to mend public relations, and disregard up to a point these tribal fiefdoms that pop up overnight, that might be a basic first step toward improving .the international image of Uncle Sam. Armed with such a decision then those Who are charged with the job could really move forward with greater chance of success, using more specialized tools that have not been discredited or worn out. The Russian Problem Hardly an issue of newspaper or magazine rolls off the press without some learned thesis on “The Russian Problem.” One more perhaps will not hurt, and could pos sibly help. When the rags were tom from the scare crows that jHilter and, Mussolini had so jba^ly frightened the world1 with it capie as no surprise to many (that it takes far more .than “nunminig the trains on time” to keep a government together. Whether a dictatorship is from the politi cal left or right there is little difference. Under Stalin or Hitler there was the con stant treachery, the palace planning that is inevitably created when .there is no king to replace the king, and no political process by wtoch the new leader is systematically elected. Today aa the free world' ruptures it ul cers over the table thumping barnyard manners of JChmshchev there is, really, on since ed, and, Conceivably, may be going on after gov ernments have ended. The Hussains play a dangerous interna tional game that compares in many re spects to “Russian Roulette.” They have one round loaded in their arsenal — the ballistic missile, or so tjtey claim. But there are blanks in every other chamber of their weaponery. Food, for instance, is as basic a requisite to war as guns. Politically how secure are the Russians in, say Poland, Hungary, East Germany? No more secure that the Germans were in France, Poland and Hungary. Perhaps the Soviets are as well off as the'United States in Korea, or Japan, or West Germany. Economically? We hear a lot about how near to' bankruptcy our nation is, but are twe talking about dollars or resources? The Soviets cannot buy the gadgetry of outer space, twr foot the hill for countless divi sions of occupying troops without sapping their rescaurces more than ours. The Russian Problem is. psychic, not physical. \ ’. For >wm«thirt4~like 20 year* the United States experimented with a legahsmC that was loosely known as '‘FroMbttoo”. The net result of this statutory ban on alcoholic beverages was 1. to deprive the government and legitimate channels of industry of bil lions oi dollarlkof income, 2. to debase law enforcement worse than at any time educe men began nfleaifing badges, 3. to create an arrogant and wealthy class of criminals who supplied to thfe public what the law forbid, but what, the public demanded. The single purpose of the prohibition ef fort — to stop the drinking Of alcoholic beverages was never achieved since ccostitutkmal powers cannot repeal the laws of chemistry, y , In exactly the same sense the laws which we presently, suffer on gambling are un workable since the -psychic urge to gamble is almost as immutable as the law of fer mentation. Wbethet a man is on his knees in a floating crap game, begging for “an eight, the hard-way’’, or sitting in a air-condi tioned salon watching a ticker tape his impulse is identical and basic. He is seek ing profit. . ■ r . x. The parallel between prohibition and amti igamblinig laws is striking: 1. Gambling laws have deprived the government and legitimate channels of commerce of billions of dollars, 2. They have debased law en forcement in many areas almost to the . low levels of the hath tub gin era, 3. they have created — or perhaps perpetuated a iwealthy class of criminals, who supply the public, once more, with that which is for bidden by law but demanded by human mature. The corruption of college athletes, the depravity of college professors in abetting television producers who were supposedly betting one’s man1 imtelligenice against ano ther, .the punks selling numbers racket tickets around schools are moral sores on society that are a direct result of trying to do by statute' the impossible chore of renovating human nature. Paradoxically, that particular sport that Was lat (one tim|e 'oawsidjrred /the moat corrupt—horse racing — today is apparent ly- the “cleanest” sport in the nation, and dineoctly .because it operates under the law, rather than under the counter. The difference between a church supper, bingo party and a national lottery is only in degree; assuredly not in morality. <When laws are passed that attempt to re-make mankind into any special moral pattern, happily, they .are foredoomed. Men will not conform; at least free men will not, and there is considerable evidence to support the premise that even men who are not so free are not identical. ' Left-handed spitting on the state consti tution seems to be the fashion with the •General Assembly, which cannot raise its pay but has gotten around that legal im pediment by raising its expense allowances, each time it is convened. Morality would jbe better served 'by offering a constitution al amendment that would raise the legis lative pay to a level more in keeping with the importance of the job -than the present $1800 per biennium. The, President’s wife, who' was a photo grapher, before matrimony, must shrivel iat the camera angles she is being murder ed with now that she is the world’s’ jnost (photographed woman. Nobody, but nobody is pretty froth every angle. What Prifce Glory? , Needed Treating: These are Cubans that ' Castro is,.trying to swap for tractors. JONES JOURNAL J1ACK RUDER, Publisher Published Every Thursday by Hie Lenoir County News Company, Inc)., 408 West Vernon, Ave., Kinston, N. C., Phone JA 3 2318. Entered as Second Cteas Hotter Hey 5, 1949, at the Poet Office «t Trenton North Carolina, under the Act of March 3, .1879. By Mail in First Zone—18.00 Per Year. Subscription Ratos Payable In Advance. Periodically the public is exposed to ex plosions a* the top level about the need for one kind or another of censorship. At present the television industry is under at tack because it spends a large share 6f its energies, turning out blood and thunder, (which is consumed by the small fry. .Re member when Orson Welles was about to get radio canned with liis shocking “Men from Mars” broadcast? Then' it was radio under fire. Before radio it was novels — the old pulp magazines that have now largely pass ed away because people are reading best sellers that are twice as gory and 10 times £(b sexy — but have the flavor of art tacked to them. Smut is smut either on the best seller list or between the lurid covers of a magazine counter. Surveys of juvenile delinquents have been made to indicate that the vast' majority have .been led down the primrose path from seeing Peter Gunn, Paladin and Gunsmoke. *, Which, for my money, is pure hbgwash. Nobody has, and nobody will compile sta tistics to discover how many wild youths have gotten their kick® from watching, rather than .acting in blood-and -thunder ep isodes. . , • N I’ve watched a lot of these ^ thrillers that are supposed to be ruining our children, I listened to a lot of the old radio dramas ■that were called “crime schools,” and I read thousands of the old pulp stories that were blamed for juvenile delinquency back in the twenties and thirties. Juvenile delinquency Is not caused by TV, radio, books, comic strips, failure of the churchy weakness of .the schools. Juvenile delinquency is caused Iby delinquent parents. Parents who .have failed to exert their authority; to main tain discipline in the home. Children who do not respect the author ity of* their parents will have no respect for anyother authority. This is as sure as taxation! Some children require different disciplinary measures than others. One child needs little more than a word, ano ther may need: a lecture, another may have to have his bottom warmed. In fact, there are very few children who some where along the line do not need a solid spanking to let them know exactly who the boss is. These do-gooders who want to censor TV, are the same types that sign petitions and besiege judges when some delinquent Jurat gets into trouble and is standing be fqfp the courts. Certainty of detection and Certainty of punishment are the most-posi tive methods to curb either juvenile or adult delinquency. When society covers up for and makes excuses for and puts the blame for wrong doing on everybody except the actual wrong-doer a pretty sorry mess is about to be made of that same society. Every school child is required to' study MacBeth, but very few school children have grown up with a passion to murder their ■ruler. David is a great hero of the iBible, who slew a giant, with his. sling and stole the wife of a faithful lieutenant after he had sent that faithful lieutenant to cer tain death in battle. Not too many of our children who have read the story of David have tried to imitate his bravery at his Chicanery. 'Censorship in our society must remain an individual act. Parents who are con cerned about the TV shows, movies or books their children see have ithe basic duly of (checking up and doing their own censor
Jones County Journal (Trenton, N.C.)
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June 15, 1961, edition 1
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